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THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE   CHILD 


^t^^ 


A^ 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF 


THE    CHILD 


BY 


NATHAN    OPPENHEIM 

ATTENDING  PHYSICIAN  TO  THE  CHILDREN'S  DEPARTMENT 
OF  MT.  SINAI  HOSPITAL  DISPENSARY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1898 

AU  rif^U  reserved 


Copyright,  1898, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


STorfaooti  ^r«sg 

J.  8.  Cuihing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  ft  Smith 
Norwood  Mafi.  TT.S.A. 


Ed./P8yclu 
Library 

L6 


Co  iHs  3Eife 


-<  ai^4  ^.^i 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 
Introductory        i 

CHAPTER  n 
Facts  in  the  Comparative  Development  of  the  Child      i  i 

CHAPTER  HI 

Facts  in  the  Comparative  Development  of  the  Child 

{continued) 37 

CHAPTER  IV 

Comparative  Importance  of  Heredity  and  Environ- 
ment   66 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Place  of  the  Primary  School  in  the  Develop- 
ment OF  the  Child 93 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Place  of  Religion  in  the  Development  of  the 

Child 122 

vii 


Vm  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VII 

rAGB 

The  Value  of  the  Child  as  a  Witness  in  Suits  at 

Law 148 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Development  of  the  Child-Criminal      .       .       .175 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  Child's  Development  as  a  Factor  in  producing 

the  Genius  or  the  Defective 207 

CHAPTER  X 
Institutional  Life  in  the  Development  of  the  Child    241 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Profession  of  Maternity 266 


^Oeipovaiv  rjdr)  XPV*^^  ofitXCaL  xaxat 

MENANDER 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

CHAPTER  I 

Introductory 

One  of  the  noteworthy  characteristics  of  the  time  ^^^^^-'^^"^ 
is  the  so-called  moral  revival  which  has  shown  itself 
in  almost  every  part  of  the  civilized  world.  It  has 
made  its  imprint  upon  England,  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Russia.  In  our  own  country  it  has 
wrought  some  striking  changes.  These  changes  have 
been  very  plainly  seen  all  through  the  common  life 
of  the  time,  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  features 
of  this  revival  is  the  diversity  of  form  which  it  has 
assumed.  From  one  end  of  the  social  fabric  to  the 
other  the  same  note  is  heard;  whether  in  regard  to 
the  subject  of  dress,  or  of  charity,  whether  business 
methods  or  housekeeping,  the  spirit  of  the  hour  calls 
for  a  strenuous  effort,  a  desire  to  improve  upon  the 
past,  a  noble  dissatisfaction  that  can  be  quieted  only 
by  an  active  exhibition  of  individual  endeavor.  In  i)U  !<*y--«*»^'. 
fact,  the  keynote  of  the  whole  movement  seems  to  be  yj^^ji^ 
an  appeal  to  the  individual  to  assert  whatever  energy 


2  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

he  has  to  the  end  of  insuring  his  best  development. 
'  The  individual  is  recognized  as  the  ultimate  element 
of  the  mass,  and  therefore  plans  that  are  meant  to 
improve  the  mass  must  begin  with  each  single  person. 
Even  in  politics,  the  new-forming  touch  is  felt,  and 
political  methods  are  beginning  to  take  another  and 
newer  shape.  It  is  for  reasons  such  as  these  that 
M,  Charles  Secr6tan  has  wisely  said :  "  Political  salva- 
tion in  a  democracy  depends  solely  on  private  efforts, 
on  an  inward  mission." 

One  may  rightly  go  further,  saying  that  the  salvation 
which  depends  upon  private  efforts,  upon  an  inward 
mission,  is  not  confined  to  political  life.  In  fact,  in 
the  whole  range  of  human  affairs,  this  sentiment  of 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  a  personal  idea,  to  the  cause 
of  an  individual  belief,  is  the  strongest  force  that  can 
actuate  men.  It  has  the  inspiring  force  that  makes 
martyrs ;  it  begins  a  crusade,  works  miracles,  incites 
to  heroism.  The  great  captains  of  all  time  are  the 
men  who  have  most  keenly  felt  it.  The  light  which 
radiates  from  it  is  so  strong  that  whoever  comes  into 
contact  with  it  becomes  thereby  illumined.  It  acts 
as  a  sort  of  spiritual  infection,  whose  range  of  influence 
extends  over  the  whole  race.  In  times  past,  when 
the  spirit  of  the  people  was  more  clearly  that  of  a 
mass,  it  acted  generally  from  some  individual  source, 
from  which  it  spread  by  waves  to  surrounding  people. 
Rightly  enough,  therefore,  ancient  history  was  really 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

one-man  history,  individual  history.  National  and 
world  events  meant  impulses  which  originated  in  one 
man,  or  a  small  group  of  persons  controlled  by  one 
man;  and  whatever  force  he  had  was  the  real  motive 
energy  which  agitated  his  time. 

Nowadays  things  do  not  happen  in  quite  the  same  ^.^  ^^-^^  g 
way.     Naturally,  the  influence  of  a  strong  man  is,  and   eU-v^t*  U  d. 
always  must  be,  felt.     But  outside  of  this  there  is  a  ^'^'■'••^**" 
great  tendency  not  to  follow  a  leader  quite  as  blindly 
as  in  the  past.     Men  require  something  of  a  reason  ; 
they  want   an    excuse    for    unquestioning    obedience. 
They  feel  the  need  of  answering  for  their  acts  to  a 
conscience.     In  other  words,  there  is  a  growing  ten- 
dency, although  it  may  at  the  beginning  be  small,  to 
think  independently,  to  act  independently.     And  where  (^^„_^ , 
this  individuality  of  action  is  touched  by  the  glow  of   ..-*,-{  ,.  .* 
a  spiritual  idea,  one  begins  to  feel  something  of  this 
doctrine  of  private  effort,  of  an  inward  mission.     And 
when  the  tendency  to  mass-action,  to  ready-made  be- 
liefs, is  still  further  impeded,  the  belief  in   the   self- 
sufficiency  of  each  man,  each  social  unit,  must  be  still 
more  emphatic. 

However,  this  trait  may  be  obtained,  not  by  a  spon-  uwU(vtiH*>ci, 
taneous   evolution,  not   by  a  blind   adherence   to   the  *^*^'yn'eL.&ti 
ability  of  each  person  to  develop  in  the  highest  way,  but  '  "''' 
by  such  intelligent  means  and  methods  as  will  put  him 
as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  highest  plane  that  the  ma- 
jority of  his  fellow-creatures  hold.     This  ideal  equality 


4  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

—  far  different  from  anything  which  society  now  pos- 
sesses—  will  act  for  the  interests  of  the  race  in  the 
broadest  extent.  The  dictum  that  all  men  are  born 
free  and  equal  is  plainly  true  only  in  an  academic 
interpretation.  It  certainly  is  not  true  as  far  as  the 
actual  facts  of  their  careers  can  show.  As  far  as  one 
can  see,  there  is  as  little  actual  freedom  in  the  world 
as  one  can  possibly  imagine.  Almost  every  adult,  on 
reaching  maturity,  has  a  certain  range  of  limitations, 
working  much  more  rigorously  than  statutes  enacted 
by  law,  which  determine  in  what  ways  he  must  advance, 
stand  still,  or  go  backward ;  at  the  same  time  his 
freedom  of  choice,  even  of  desire,  is  similarly  defined. 
And,  after  all,  one  is  most  apt  to  think  of  his  freedom 
as  permission  to  exercise  himself  within  the  demarca- 
tions set  up  by  his  environment ;  or  one  might  compare 
it  to  the  freedom  which  a  prisoner,  bound  hand  and 
foot,  has  to  contract  his  muscles.  In  spite  of  such 
freedom,  he  still  is  bound.     And  actually,  a  member 

,  of  a  civilized  community  is  bound  physically,  mentally, 
spiritually.     He  can  no  more  be  said  to  have  a  real 

1  liberty  of  choice  than  a  bird  in  a  cage. 

And  so  far  as  the  question  of  what  he  is  entitled  to, 
]^ ,  what  he  has  a  right  to,  goes,  there  is  very  little  more 
to  be  said.  It  is  hard  to  find  any  natural  right  that 
really  belongs  to  him,  excepting,  possibly,  in  some  few 
cases,  the  right  to  die.  Otherwise,  every  one  of  his 
so-called  rights  is  the  result  of  social  and  legal  enact- 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

ment,  things  to  which  he  becomes  entitled  by  virtue 
of  his  manner  of  subscribing  to  the  rulings  of  the 
society  in  which  he  lives.  The  fact  of  being  born  in 
this  society  puts  upon  him  the  necessity  of  living  in  it, 
and  as  soon  as  he  arrives  upon  the  stage  where  the 
decision  of  affairs  rests  largely  upon  his  immediate 
volition,  he  directly  comes  to  see  that  his  power  of 
choice  is  very  limited,  that  his  faculty  of  private  effort 
is  generally  very  small,  that  only  under  the  greatest 
difficulties  may  he  have  an  inward  mission.  Whatever 
these  forces  may  be,  they  occur  not  necessarily  as 
spontaneous  emotions,  but  rather  as  the  result  of  fric- 
tion, association,  generally  called  environment. 

By  a  related  process  of  thought,  one  can  easily  realize 
that  the  whole  sum  of  life  belongs  in  its  general  clas- 
sification to  environment.  The  human  being,  in  the 
first  part  of  his  existence,  is  much  more  unformed  than 
is  generally  thought.  The  determining  factors  are  not 
as  parents  usually  consider  them.  A  strong  belief  in 
heredity  has  become  so  general  that  direct  effects  of 
descent  are  looked  for  with  all  the  confidence  and 
sureness  of  settled  and  incontrovertible  facts.  The 
good  father  is  supposed  to  have  a  good  son,  the  virtuous 
mother  is  supposed  to  bear  an  equally  virtuous  daugh- 
ter; by  a  seeming  parity  of  reasoning,  people  know 
that  homing  pigeons  will  produce  homing  pigeons, 
fox  terriers  will  bring  forth  their  kind.  Very  rarely 
is  the  utter  lack  of  similitude  between  the  two  sets  of 


6  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

r,^  t^l       examples   seen   and   insisted  upon.     The   qualities   of 
Ti     • }  goodness  and  virtue  are  purely  functional,  the  result  of 
V  *«ArvVo^»  "Action,  social  interaction,  environment.     The  question 
y-'l*"  of  underlying  physical  structure,  of  the  disposition  of 

bony,  muscular,  and  nervous  tissue,  is  one  of  purely 
somatic,  organic  composition.  And  between  the  two 
there  is  the  difference  of  natural  inheritance  and  arti- 
ficial acquirements. 
/b  *.  U  When  this  distinction  becomes  a  clearly  understood 
hJiu'Ji  t^^  ^^ct,  people  will  see  that  a  new  set  of  "  rights  "  should 
kj.9Q<L,  be  counted  upon;  not  a  right  of  objective  demands, 
but  rather  that  of  subjective  insistence.  Parents  may 
elect  to  gratify  their  affections,  pride,  and  interest,  by 
modifying  the  fluid  potentialities  of  their  offspring  in 
the  way  that  will  bring  most  force,  comfort,  and  welfare 
to  all  concerned.  The  doctrine  of  heredity,  as  com- 
monly held,  not  only  is  falsely  applied  to  human 
descents,  but  also  renders  the  wisest  and  best  efforts 
of  training  unnecessary  and  useless.  For  if  at  birth 
the  child's  bodily  and  mental  organization  is  complete, 
if  the  acquired  characteristics  of  parents  are  handed 
down  to  offspring,  then  there  the  matter  ends.  Every 
remarkable  parent  would  have  equally  remarkable  chil- 
dren, every  deficient  person  would  curse  his  descend- 
ants by  a  like  deficiency ;  work,  training,  striving  after 
noble  ideals,  would  be  useless  and  silly.  There  would 
be  an  end  of  private  efforts,  of  an  inward  mission. 
But  matters  are  not  so  hopeless,  as  one,  by  following 


V4*- 


INTRODUCTORY  J 

closely  the  growth  and  development  of  the  child,  as  he  ^o>*x*jw.v»i 
grows  into  youth  and  then  into  manhood,  can  see.  His  \  v  ^ 
early  stages  are  merely  transitional ;  the  time  of  prepa-  yj.^^^t^X^ 
ration  in  which  he  changes  from  the  microscopic  mass  ^^  ^*-*^ 
of  protoplasm,  which  is  his  form  after  conception,  to 
the  fully  developed  adult  who  constitutes  the  highest 
product  of  terrestrial  evolution,  is  merely  a  phase  of 
development.  In  these  stages  the  young  organism  is 
played  upon  by  an  infinite  number  of  influences  that 
mould  his  body  and  mind  according  to  their  nature  and 
kind.  If  the  child  is  to  be  developed  in  the  finest  way, 
every  possible  influence  that  acts  upon  him  should  be 
controlled  to  serve  the  ends  of  development.  The  ener-i 
gies  that  belong  to  building  up  this  range  of  potential- 
ities should  be  of  the  finest  quality,  should  have  the 
greatest  liberty  of  action,  should  be  awarded  the  high- 
est place  in  the  community.  The  training  which  the 
child  is  to  get  should  be  what  is  essentially  designed 
for  him  in  his  unripe  condition,  for  it  cannot  be  similar 
to  that  of  an  adult.  So  long  as  one  recognizes  that  the 
child  is  absolutely  different  from  the  adult,  not  only  in 
size,  but  also  in  every  element  which  goes  to  make  up 
the  final  state  of  maturity,  one  is  more  apt  to  get  a 
true  method  of  development,  which  must  gradually 
bear  the   results   of  a   higher   evolution. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  ideas  and 
methods  governing  the  treatment  of  children,  what 
one  is  bound  to  provide  for  them,  as  well  as  what  one 


8 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 


^1;§J^-   may  expect  from  them,  are  sadly  deficient.     The  blame 

^tX  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^°^  ^"^  much  upon  carelessness 
uJU-  and  indifference  in  parents  and  guardians  (although 
these  peculiarities  exist),  as  upon  a  wrong  conception 
of  the  problem.  There  is  not  enough  of  conviction  in 
the  minds  of  parents  and  guardians  that  the  responsi- 
bility of  their  children's  acts,  either  good  or  bad,  rests 
upon  their  older  shoulders,  that  the  final  outcome  of 
these  children's  lives  depends  almost  entirely  upon 
the  influences,  the  nutrition,  the  environment  which 
the  authority  of  the  parents  and  guardians  provide. 
The  elements  that  are  to  be  affected,  being  in  an 
almost  fluid  state  so  far  as  susceptibility  to  change 
is  concerned,  require  an  unceasing  care  and  attention. 
To  break  in  upon  the  rule  for  a  single  week  or  day 
or  hour  defaces  the  beauty  of  the  finished  product, 
and  leaves  an  opening  for  divergences  from  the  best 
growth,  that  can  later  on  be  remedied,  if  at  all,  with 
difficulty.  The  bringing  up  of  a  child  thus  means 
a  series  of  lessons  in  self-restraint,  in  watchfulness, 
in  adherence  to  an  ideal,  for  the  parent  even  more 
than  for  the  child.  The  child  will  fashion  himself 
after  the  patterns  that  he  sees ;  he  does  not  grow 
{according  to  some  hard  and  fast  rule  that  has  been 
jimplanted  in  him  before  he  is  born. 

When  this  is  appreciated,  one  will  immediately  see 
that  the  world  has  a  wrong  idea  of  its  children.  It 
looks  upon  them  as  adults,   but  slightly  different,  in 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

the  details  of  small  size,  deficient  strength,  little  ex-  c/v»s:^v/oi  -v-i* 
perience,  from   grown   men  and  women.      It  believes  5h»*i^AcUi 
that,  were  these  details  filled  out  and  completed,  the 
child  would  be  the  same  as  after  the  lapse  of  years 
he  comes   to   be.     And   therefore,  in   consequence   of 
this   opinion,    it   provides   surroundings    for   him   that 
would  be  most  fitted  for  a  person  of  matured  powers, 
who   lacked   strength    and   knowledge.     The   rules   of 
conduct  which  result  must,  in  the  face  of  the  child's 
real   condition,    be   fundamentally  false.     Since   he   is 
in  no  way  really  like  an  adult,  since  his  condition  is  — 
one  of  continuous  change,  it  follows  that  he  needs  a 
special    treatment    and   environment,    which   must   be 
modelled  upon  a  correct  conception  of  what  he  really 
is.     This  would   necessitate  a  remoulding  of  his  rela- 
tions and  surroundings,  an  overhauling  of  ideas  about 
comparative   influences.     So  long  as  this  is  not  done,  '^^      . 
we  are  apt  to  bear  the  penalty  of  thoughtlessness  in  ^ 

unnecessarily  deficient  men  and  women,  in  the  abuses 
which  come  from  one-sided  and  twisted  bodies  and 
minds,  in  a  stoppage  of  the  evolution  which  goes  hand 
in  hand  with  the  best  evolution  of  the  race.  But 
first  of  all,  we  must  see  the  truth,  we  must  know 
exactly  what  children  are,  what  their  development 
is,  and  for  what  they  are  fitted.  Later  on  it  will  be 
time  enough  to  build  up  a  system  of  positive  treatment. 
Before  construction,  one  must  clear  the  ground,  one 
must  get  rid  of  old  material  which  is  useless,  which 


lO       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

blocks  the  way.  In  the  prospect  of  making  a  better 
future,  is  inspiration  enough  for  the  most  prosaic  mind. 
We  must  recast  our  conceptions  of  the  function 
and  the  scope  of  our  children ;  we  must  look  with 
unprejudiced  eyes  upon  the  part  which  they  reasonably 
may  be  expected  to  play  in  the  work  of  the  world. 
We  must  conclude  to  give  more  and  ask  for  less.  It 
has  been  said  that  people  in  the  world  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes :  Those  who  give  little  and  ask  for 
little,  those  who  give  little  and  ask  for  much,  those 
who  give  much  and  ask  for  little.  Into  which  classes 
the  wise  man  should  put  himself  may  be  left  to  the 
general  conscience.  The  choice  rightly  made  is  in 
itself  a  discipline,  a  realization  of  the  necessity  for 
private  efforts,  for  an  inward  mission. 


CHAPTER  II 

Facts  in  the  Comparative  Development  of  the 

Child 

/I         ,- 
Children,  according  to  common  views,  are  looked  3  ^ 

upon  as  adults  in  small.  Most  parents  never  stop  to  .1^  y 
think  of  the  possibility  or  likelihood  of  their  own 
mature  condition  being  any  different  from  the  condi- 
tion of  their  little  ones.  This  is  somewhat  remarkable, 
because  the  two  are  not,  except  in  general  ways,  alike. 
Moreover,  the  whole  world  of  animals  seems  to  be 
similarly  disposed  so  that  the  young  require  different 
conditions,  different  surroundings,  different  care,  from 
the  ordinary  adult  standard.  Where  the  changes  are 
very  striking,  as  for  instance,  in  the  caterpillar,  they 
are  regarded  as  exceptions  which  bear  no  analogy  in 
other  creatures.  There  the  transition  from  the  creep- 
ing, rather  plain-colored  insect  to  the  dormant,  half- 
dead  chrysalis,  and  then  to  the  brilliant,  fluttering 
butterfly,  is  so  wonderful  that  even  the  dullest  imagi- 
nation is  touched;  for  the  wonder  inheres  not  only 
in  changed  appearance,  but  also  in  changed  methods 
of  locomotion,  food,  general  manner  of  life. 

II 


12        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Caterpillars,  however,  are  not  the  only  creatures 
which  show  remarkable  changes.  The  same  idea  holds 
good  through  all  animal  life,  especially  in  the  higher 
families.  In  fact,  it  is  only  in  the  very  lowest  forms 
that  infancy  and  youth  are  alike.  As  a  rule,  animals, 
in  proportion  to  the  complexity  of  their  organization 
and  functions,  mature  late  in  life;  the  higher  the  ani- 
mal, the  longer,  proportionally  to  the  whole  term  of 
life,  does  it  take  to  reach  the  full  exercise  of  all  his 
powers.  A  corollary  of  this  is,  that  increasing  com- 
plexity of  organization  and  functions  involves  corre- 
spondingly great  changes  in  actual  physical  states. 
This  idea,  although  heretofore  our  attention  has  not 
been  much  called  to  it,  is  beautifully  illustrated  in 
human  development.  We  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
looking  upon  a  child  as  a  man  in  small,  of  looking 
upon  a  man  as  a  child  somewhat  strengthened,  with 
greater  experience  and  knowledge.  Outside  of  these 
factors  of  experience,  knowledge,  and  strength,  the 
child  and  man  seem  practically  the  same.  So  true  is 
this  observation  that  society  founds  its  judgments 
accordingly,  it  prescribes  its  methods  of  education,  of 
social  and  domestic  care  accordingly,  it  sees  almost 
no  differences  outside  of  these  adventitious  ones  be- 
tween them. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  many 
salient  factors,  beyond  the  most  fundamental  laws,  in 
which  the  infant  and  adult  exactly  resemble  each  other. 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  1 3 

Multiply  the  proportions  of  the  infant  to  those  of  the 
adult,  and  you  will  have  a  being  whose  large  head  and 
dwarfed  lower  face,  whose  apex-like  thorax,  whose 
short  arms  and  legs  give  a  grotesque  appearance.  The 
two  do  not  breathe  alike,  their  pulse  rates  are  not  alike, 
the  composition  of  their  bodies  is  not  alike.  The  most 
ordinary  analysis  shows  this.  Fehling  gives  the  per- 
centage of  water  in  a  very  young  foetus  as  ninety-seven 
and  five-tenths  per  cent.  This  proportion,  instead  of 
being  a  permanent  feature,  is  merely  a  transitory  one. 
It  diminishes  steadily  until,  after  birth,  it  is  seventy- 
four  and  seven-tenths  per  cent.  The  decrease  con- 
tinues regularly,  but  more  slowly,  until  in  the  adult 
it  is  only  fifty-eight  and  five-tenths  per  cent.  Even 
the  common  differences  that  are  characteristic  of 
various  ages,  and  with  which  every  one  is  familiar, 
have  their  foundations  in  actual  differences  of  con- 
formation. For  instance,  one  may  say  that  children 
are  more  supple  than  adults,  but  not  merely  because 
they  are  younger ;  it  is  rather  because  they  have  rela- 
tively a  greater  proportion  of  muscle  tissue,  and  a 
smaller  proportion  of  tendon.  Thus  there  is  actually 
less  of  the  elements  which  make  the  body  rigid.  This 
change  produces  just  as  real  an  alteration  in  the  physi- 
cal being  of  the  person  as  the  loss  of  the  prehensible 
power  of  the  great  toe,  the  clinging  faculty,  and  the 
sucking  reflex,  which  fade  away  with  the  passage  of 
infancy.     Again,  the  common  necessity  of  eating  has 


'V. 


14       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

different  objects  in  the  two  ages :  in  the  adult  the 
repair  of  body  waste  is  the  only  end  sought ;  in  the 
child,  besides  this,  there  are  additional  reasons,  such  as 
the  supplying  of  greater  energy  than  at  any  previous 
time,  and  also  the  forming  of  entirely  new  tissue,  such 
as  would  be  commensurate  with  added  growth.  Like- 
wise the  deprivation  from  food,  starvation,  is  fatal  for 
each  in  a  different  way ;  in  the  adult  death  occurs 
because  the  amount  of  food  is  too  small  to  atone  for 
the  processes  of  disintegration ;  in  the  child  the  same 
result  is  reached  for  the  same  reason,  plus  the  equally 
or  more  important  one  that  the  nervous  system,  on 
account  of  its  unstable  and  unripe  condition,  more 
easily  and  quickly  becomes  exhausted. 

On  more  minute  examination,  one  finds  greater  and 
greater  differences,  until  one  comes  to  believe  that  we 
have  been  trying  to  see  our  children  in  a  totally  false 
light.  It  is  more  than  a  figure  of  speech  to  say 
that  the  child  is  father  of  the  man;  it  is  rather  a 
great  bound  of  the  imagination.  The  child  is  simply 
a  stage  in  a  development  which  is  unstable,  which 
changes  in  as  due  proportion  as  the  embryo  changes 
into  the  infant.  From  the  moment  of  conception  till 
full  adult  life,  there  is  one  continuous  change  that 
is  steady,  but  decreasing  in  rapidity  in  proportion  to 
the  length  of  time  during  which  it  has  been  in  prog- 
ress. The  change  is  universal,  the  different  parts  of 
the  body  participating  in  it  in  varying  degrees.     The 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  1 5 

enumeration  of  some  of  these  is  so  convincing  as  to 
justify  examining  Vierordt's  table,  which  shows  the  per- 
centage weights  in  the  new  born  and  the  adult.^ 

Some  of  these  variations  seem  small  when  expressed 
in  terms  of  percentage  weight  of  the  whole  body ;  but 
when  they  are  stated  in  terms  of  percentage  of  their 
own  weight,  the  result  seems  much  different,  and  much 
greater.  In  this  latter  method  one  could  state  the 
increase  in  the  heart  to  be  from  twelve  to  thirteen  times 
the  original  size,  in  the  liver  about  eleven  times,  in  the 
lungs  about  twenty  times,  in  the  brain  about  four  times, 
and  so  on. 

Take  another  particular  instance :  To  say  that  the 

New  Born  Adult 

1  Skeleton 16.7%  15.35% 

Muscles 23.4  43-09 

Skin 11.3  6.30 

Brain 14.34  2.37 

Spinal  Cord 0.20  0.067 

Eyes 0.28  0.023 

Salivary  Glands 0.24  0.12 

Thyroid  Gland O.24  0.05 

Lungs 2.16  2.01 

Heart 0.89  0.52 

Thymus  Gland 0.54  0.0086 

Stomach  and  Intestines 2.53  2.34 

Pancreas 0.12  0.15 

Liver 4,39  2.77 

Spleen 0.41  0.346 

Suprarenal  Capsules 0.31  0.014 

Kidneys 0.88  0.48 

Testicles 0.037  0.08 


1 6  THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE   CHILD 

child  is  a  man  in  small  is  just  as  wrong  as  to  say  that 
the  bony  skeleton  is  the  foundation  and  the  framework 
upon  which  are  laid  the  softer  parts  which  it  ultimately 
supports.  As  a  fact,  the  bones  in  their  immaturity  are 
moulded,  are  pulled  into  this  line  and  that  by  the  very 
muscles  and  tendons  which  they  exceed  so  greatly  in 
rigidity.  A  little  thought  will  show  this  to  be  suffi- 
ciently natural,  for  the  bones,  as  every  other  part  of  the 
body,  are  continually  changing,  and  show  material  dif- 
ferences between  their  infantile  and  adult  conditions. 
Their  final  condition,  as  well  as  their  function,  is  so  dif- 
ferent from  their  changing  phases  of  growth,  that  the 
resemblance  between  them  is  merely  a  general  one. 
This  is  interesting  enough  to  demand  an  analysis  of 
a  characteristic  bone,  say  the  tibia,^  which  in  itself  has 
a  deep  enough  meaning  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a 
theory  of  development  and  education.  It  is  not  so 
much  a  question  of  small  variations  in  body  composi- 
tion, as  of  the  principle  underlying  these  variations. 

Looked  at  in  this   light,  it  does  not  require   much 
effort  to  show  why  the  infant's  bones  are  softer  and 


aMos. 

9  Mos. 

3YRS. 

19  Yrs. 

25  Yrs. 

1  Phosphate  of  Calcium  .     . 

57-54 

48.55 

59-74 

54.84 

57-18 

Carbonate  of  Calcium 

6.02 

5-79 

6.00 

10.82 

8.95 

Phosphate  of  Magnesium 

1. 03 

1. 00 

1.34 

1.26 

1.70 

Chloride  of  Sodium     .     . 

0-73 

1.24 

0.63 

0.76 

0.60 

Cartilaginous  Substance  . 

33-861 

41.50 

31-34 

3137 

29-54 

Fatty  Matter     .... 

0.82 

1.92 

0.95 

0.92 

1.84 

Organic  Matter      .     .    . 

34.68 

43-42 

32.29 

32.29 

31-36 

Inorganic  Matter    .     .     . 

65.32 

56.36 

67.71 

67.71 

68.42 

FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  17 

more  vascular  than  the  adult's,  nor  the  ultimate  import 
of  the  change.  One's  attention  is  immediately  turned 
to  the  idea  of  a  consistent  course  of  development.  The 
difference,  however,  is  not  greater  than  what  one  sees 
in  the  marrow.  This  in  the  young  is,  in  the  first  place, 
quite  different  in  color  from  the  adult  form,  being  a 
fairly  bright  red  ;  this  is  caused  by  the  great  number 
of  dilated  blood-vessels.  Also  it  is  softer  and  holds  a 
larger  percentage  of  water.  It  is  only  by  slow  degrees 
that  this  marrow  is  changed  into  the  yellow,  fatty  sub- 
stance which  it  afterwards  comes  to  be.  If  one  saw 
in  an  adult  the  condition  that  is  regularly  seen  in  a 
child,  one  would  certainly  pronounce  it  pathological. 
If  we  take  the  item  of  cartilage,  as  another  particular 
instance,  one  finds  that  the  variations  still  continue.^ 
Again,  the  infantile  muscles  are  noticeably  different 
from  the  adult,  in  that  they  contain  a  greater  percent- 
age of  water,  and  a  smaller  percentage  of  myosin,  as 
well  as  extractives,  fat,  and  inorganic  ingredients. 
Also,  in  the  foetal  blood  the  specific  gravity  is  some- 
what lower  than  in  the  adult,  and  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  serum  is  markedly  lower.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  a  few  weeks  there  is  so  much  change  here  that  the 
specific  gravity  of  the  infant's  blood  is  commonly 
higher  than  an  adult's.  The  red  corpuscles  are  in 
the  infant  poorer  in  haemoglobin,  as   seventy-six   and 

^  In  the  child  of  six  months  the  proportion  of  mineral  salts  in  cartilage 
is  2.24  %.     At  three  years  it  is  3  %,  at  nineteen  it  is  7.29  %. 
c 


1 8  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

eight-tenths  is  to  one  hundred  while  the  stroma  is 
richer.  Again,  the  amount  of  fibrinogen  is  relatively 
small,  as  two  is  to  seven.  The  amount  of  sodium  in 
solution  is  larger  and  the  potassium  smaller.  There 
is  a  lessened  tendency  to  coagulation.  In  early  foetal 
life  the  red  corpuscles  are  nucleated,  and  do  not  attain 
their  normal  condition  until  after  birth.  Moreover, 
they  are  greater  in  number.  Likewise  is  the  infant's 
blood  richer  in  white  corpuscles  than  the  adult's ;  it 
is  richer  in  the  so-called  young-form  elements,  while 
the  "over-ripe"  elements  are  only  half  as  many. 
These  white  corpuscles  remain  relatively  longer  in 
the  "unripe"  condition  than  in  adults,  while  the  lat- 
ter show  a  larger  percentage  of  the  "over-ripe."  In 
short,  the  blood  of  the  new-born  child  is  so  clearly 
different  from  its  later  form,  that  Gundobin  calls  it,  ac- 
cording to  the  ordinary  standard  of  morphology,  patho- 
logical. The  difference  in  degree  is  so  marked  as  to 
amount  almost  to  a  difference  in  kind.  Finally,  the 
weight  of  the  infant's  blood  is  relatively  smaller  than 
that  of  the  adult's. 

During  the  whole  course  of  growth  there  are  the 

1*^11^^  constant   factors   of  variation,  of   irregularity.     These 
1  1^  point  indubitably  to  the  fact  that  infancy  and  child- 

f^^\  '  hood  are  solely  times  of  preparation,  that  in  them- 
selves they  have  no  fixed  status.  And  experience 
shows  that  this  condition  of  change  is  easily  affected 
one  way  or  another.     As  an  example,  one  may  take 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  19 

the  methods  of  development  which  may  clearly  be 
seen  in  the  long  bones.  These  consist  of  a  narrow 
body,  with  an  enlargement  at  each  end.  In  the  bones 
of  the  forearm  and  upper  arm  the  ends  removed  from 
the  elbow  show  much  more  growth  than  those  which 
go  to  form  the  joint,  while  in  the  lower  extremity, 
the  parts  removed  from  the  knee  grow  least.  Where 
an  untoward  nutrition  causes  a  variation  from  the 
natural  development,  consequent  changes  may  occur 
directly  or  indirectly  throughout  the  organism.  The 
changes  in  relations  in  parts  such  as  these  joints  are, 
in  some  cases,  exceedingly  interesting.  An  example 
may  be  seen  in  the  capsule  of  the  knee  joint,  which 
in  early  childhood  extends  for  only  a  short  distance 
along  the  bone;  with  increased  age  the  capsule  grows 
more  than  its  proportionate  degree,  and  so  extends 
to  a  relatively  higher  position.  This  difference  is  so 
great  that  it  influences  the  course  of  certain  diseases, 
especially  where  fluids  seek  an  outlet  from  the  joint. 
There  is  no  gradual  and  equable  growth  in  all  parts 
at  the  same  time.  Both  rate  and  location  of  increase 
are  unstable.  What  is  more,  in  certain  parts  the 
adult  condition  and  shape  are  only  hinted  at  in  early 
life,  and  for  years  maintain  essential  differences.  In 
such  cases  the  purely  provisional  character  of  young 
growth-forms  is  so  evident,  that  all  doubt  about  their 
unstable  equilibrium  is  set  at  rest. 

We  may  take  the   growth  of  the  mastoid  bone  as 


20       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

an  example.  The  external  petro-squamous  suture  ^  does 
not  become  obliterated  until  the  end  of  the  first  year. 
Then  for  the  first  time  the  mastoid  process  becomes 
distinct.  There  is,  naturally,  a  constant  formation  of 
new  bone  from  the  periosteum  surrounding  it ;  this  is 
accomplished  the  more  rapidly  because  this  perios- 
teum, as  well  as  that  of  all  the  body,  is  less  stable  in 
infants,  is  looser,  softer,  and  more  vascular  than  in 
adults.  Thus  the  walls  of  the  cavity  of  this  bone 
continuously  become  thicker.  Even  here  the  growth 
is  not  absolutely  regular,  and  on  the  average,  the 
walls  will  grow  from  one  millimetre  at  birth  to  one 
centimetre  at  nine  or  ten  years.  This  new  bone  is 
fine  cancellous  tissue,  which  at  puberty  begins  to  un- 
dergo a  process  of  absorption  in  scattered  spots.  Ab- 
sorption goes  on  gradually  but  surely  until  these  areas 
are  thus  changed  into  a  number  of  connecting  air  cells, 
eventually  lined  by  a  delicate  mucous  membrane. 

The  same  feature  of  irregularity  is  seen  in  the  union 
of  the  bones  of  the  head :  while  the  fontanelles  or 
inter-membranous  spaces  at  the  angles  of  the  parietal 
bones  normally  disappear  before  the  age  of  four  years, 
nevertheless  the  occipital  and  sphenoid  bones  are  not 
united  at  their  basilar  parts  until  the  twentieth.  Thus 
one  naturally  looks  for  a  greater  or  less  persistence  of 
foetal   conditions,   which   are    then   seen   to   disappear 

^  The  line  of  junction  between  the  petrous  and  squamous  portions  of  the 
temporal  bone  (in  the  head). 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  21 

only  gradually  with  increasing  age.  The  persistence  of 
these  conditions  is  exceedingly  interesting,  and  proves 
the  wide  distinction  existing  between  infant  and  adult 
forms.  In  the  roof  of  the  middle  ear  or  tympanum  in 
infancy,  one  finds  a  petro-squamous  suture  that  permits 
a  close  connection  between  the  blood-vessels  of  the 
brain  and  the  middle  ear.  This  connection  gradually 
disappears  with  age,  but  before  it  comes  about,  inflam- 
mations are  with  comparative  frequency  transmitted 
from  the  lining  membrane  to  the  dura  mater,  the 
tougher  of  the  membranes  surrounding  the  brain. 
The  existence  of  such  special  development  forms  has 
an  important  practical  bearing,  so  that  the  physician, 
when  treating  children,  has  a  different  problem  before 
him  than  when  treating  adults.  Another  instance  of 
gradual  development  is  in  the  foramen  ccecum,  a  notch 
in  the  frontal  bone,  which  usually  remains  patent  until 
or  after  puberty.  A  corresponding  fact  is  the  late 
appearance  of  the  frontal  and  sphenoidal  sinuses  in 
the  skull,  which  although  they  appear  about  the  second 
and  third  years  respectively,  do  not  attain  completion 
until  after  puberty. 

Another  instance  of  incomplete  development  in  early 
life  is  in  the  orbital  plate  of  the  frontal  bone,  which 
commonly  does  not  attain  its  full  form  until  after 
puberty.  The  change  in  the  dimensions  of  the  orbit 
shows  clearly  the  irregular  growth ;  for  while  in  the 
adult  it  barely  equals  one-third  of  the  face  in  height,  it 


22       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

makes  at  birth  nearly  one-half  of  it.  This  means  that 
the  length  of  the  face  and  head  in  the  young  child  is 
relatively  smaller  than  in  the  adult.  A  similar  rule 
cannot  be  made  for  the  circumference,  for  even  in  early 
childhood  this  measurement  is  almost  equal  to  that  of 
the  adult.  The  lack  of  proportion  between  the  differ- 
ent dimensions  of  the  face  at  various  times  is  thus 
made  clearly  apparent,  and  the  purely  provisional 
nature  of  youthful  forms  is  thus  very  clear.  The  upper 
and  lower  jaws  also  are  very  interesting,  on  account  of 
their  lack  in  infancy  of  permanent  proportions.  They 
begin  to  ossify  early  in  foetal  life,  and  keep  on 
developing  and  changing  all  through  the  years  of  child- 
hood, until  after  puberty,  when  the  final  formation 
gradually  makes  itself  evident.  The  upper  jaw  is 
really  the  most  important  part  of  the  face,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  is  the  part  which,  naturally  enough,  is 
least  developed  at  birth ;  therefore  it  undergoes  the 
most  salient  changes  before  it  comes  to  rest.  As 
every  one  knows,  changes  in  one  part  necessitate 
changes  in  all  related  parts,  so  that  there  is  no  one 
portion  that  one  may  look  upon  as  really  stable. 
Again,  one  may  take  as  an  example  the  layer  of  car- 
tilage which  acts  like  a  cushion  between  those  im- 
portant parts  of  the  skull,  the  basi-occipital  and  the 
basi-sphenoidal  bones ;  this  substance  does  not  allow 
them  to  unite  until  after  the  twentieth  year.  Thus 
their  final  condition  is  essentially  different  from  what 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  23 

it  was  in  the  preceding  years.  Also,  in  early  life  one 
finds  such  a  disturbance  in  relations  going  on  that  the 
posterior  border  of  the  vomer  ^  changes  from  its  very 
oblique  direction,  until  it  becomes  almost  horizontal. 

These  disturbances  serve  to  alter  the  entire  shape  of 
the  head,  as  one  can  see  by  a  few  measurements.  In 
the  infant  the  breadth  of  the  skull  in  its  thickest 
diameter  equals  or  even  may  exceed  the  total  height 
of  the  skull  and  face,  while  in  the  adult  it  is  about 
three-quarters  of  it.  Again,  the  breadth  measured 
between  the  outside  surfaces  of  the  cheek  bones  or 
zygomata  is  to  the  height  of  the  face  in  the  adult  as 
nine  is  to  eight,  while  in  the  infant  it  is  about  as  ten 
is  to  four.  Or  one  may  look  at  the  cranium  and  face,  1 
which  in  the  adult  bear  the  relation  of  two  to  one,  but 
in  the  infant  that  of  eight  to  one.  This  downward 
growth  of  the  face  is  very  characteristic  and  very  im- 
portant, especially  when  thought  of  in  regard  to  its 
influence  on  the  rest  of  the  head  and  the  neck.  Origi- 
nally the  base  of  the  skull  is  nearly  flat.  From  this 
there  come  the  rise  of  the  basilar  process  in  front  of 
the  foramen  magnum^  the  angle  thus  formed  with  the 
body  of  the  sphenoid  bone,  and  the  rapid  descent  of 
the  vomer.  Also  one  finds  at  first  the  squamous  por- 
tion of  the  temporal  bone  to  be  relatively  small  as  com- 

1  A  thin,  irregular  bone  situated  bet^veen  the  two  nasal  fossi. 
^  The  large  opening  in  the  lower  surface  of  the  skull  which  transmits 
the  spinal  cord. 


24        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

pared  with  the  parietal.  Some  years  later  we  find  that 
this  squamous  part  has  increased  in  size  more  than  the 
parietal,  and  also  has  altered  its  plane  so  as  to  be  more 
nearly  vertical.  Besides,  it  extends  upwards  on  the  outer 
surface  of  the  squamous  portion  so  as  to  overlap  it. 
Before  these  changes  have  been  made  the  nasal  cavity 
is  shallow  and  relatively  long,  the  posterior  nares  are 
small,  and  the  vomer  approaches  the  horizontal.  Thus 
the  cavity  of  the  mouth  and  posterior  nares  is  very 
small,  because  the  junction  of  nose  and  throat  or  naso- 
pharynx has  very  little  height,  and  the  perpendicular 
portion  or  ramus  of  the  jaw  is  very  oblique.  At  the 
same  time,  strangely  enough,  this  lack  of  height  goes 
together  with  another  lack  of  proportion,  for  the  dis- 
tance from  the  back  of  the  hard  palate  to  the  soft 
parts  of  the  pharynx  (excluding  the  tonsils)  is  about 
as  great,  actually,  as  in  the  adult.  The  change  in  all 
these  details  is  really  marked,  and  if  one  takes  them 
separately,  one  can  plainly  see  it.  For  instance  :  the 
lower  border  of  the  nasal  opening  is  at  birth  very  little 
below  the  lowest  point  of  the  orbit,  while  in  the  adult 
the  two  planes  are  so  far  apart  that  one  would  not 
group  them  together. 

Such  details  as  these,  taken  by  themselves,  may  not 
be  very  interesting  ;  but  when  one  looks  at  them  in  the 
whole,  they  help  to  form  a  general  idea  that  is  of 
the  greatest  value.  Without  them  the  characteristic 
features  of  infancy  and  childhood  carry  with  them  no 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  2$ 

particular  meaning.  With  them  arranged  in  an  orderly 
fashion,  a  plan  of  growth  and  development  immediately 
becomes  apparent.  By  means  of  such  a  plan,  the  needs 
of  a  proper  environment  stand  out  clearly  and  plainly  — 
much  more  so  than  they  otherwise  could.  Besides,  an 
increasing  knowledge  of  the  various  facts  mentioned  in 
this  chapter  takes  on  an  ever-enlarging  interest  that 
grows  with  the  thoroughness  of  one's  information. 

In  the  eye  one  finds  about  two-thirds  of  the  growth 
accomplished  in  earliest  infancy.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  recessus  opticus}  a  transverse  groove  leading  to  the 
optic  nerve,  is  more  marked  at  birth  than  in  adult  life. 
But  most  of  all,  the  macula  lutea,  the  centre  of  vision 
in  the  retina,  is  developed  only  after  birth.  The  new- 
born child  is  not  prepared  to  see,  and  for  some  time 
afterwards,  as  sight  comes  to  him,  he  sees  but  dimly. 
This  is  on  a  par  with  the  unripe  condition  of  the  lach- 
rymal glands,  which  for  some  weeks  (and  in  some  cases 
for  months)  secrete  no  tears  at  all.  One  should  keep 
these  things  in  mind,  for  their  bearing  upon  the  right 
exercise  of  the  child's  function  of  sight  is  of  great  im- 
portance. With  this  knowledge  one  would  never  make 
the  mistake  of  expecting  from  a  child  the  normally  fine 
visual  relations  of  an  adult.  The  ear  in  its  several  parts, 
after  an  analogous  fashion,  develops  very  unevenly.  The 
structures  of  the  internal  ear,  the  tympanic  cavity,  and 
the  auditory  ossicles  are  fairly  well  formed  shortly  after 
^  Described  in  1872. 


26  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

birth ;  but  while  this  is  true  enough,  the  external  audi- 
tory opening  or  meatus,  the  Eustachian  tube,  and  the 
portion  of  the  temporal  bone  behind  the  ear,  undergo 
many  modifications.  Soon  after  birth  the  bony  ring  of 
the  external  ear  or  annulics  tympanicus  begins  to  grow 
outwards  to  form  the  floor  and  anterior  wall  of  the 
external  auditory  meatus,  and  forwards  and  inwards 
along  the  outer  wall  of  the  tympanum,  reaching  also  a 
short  distance  in  the  outer  wall  of  the  Eustachian  tube. 
At  this  time  the  meatus  passes  inwards  and  down- 
wards, and  the  drum  of  the  ear  or  membrana  tympani 
is  almost  horizontal. 

In  the  ear,  as  well  as  in  many  other  —  if  not  all  other 
—  parts  of  the  body,  one  can  see  in  childhood  the  utter 
lack  of  permanent  form.  When  the  parts  of  an  organ 
are  not  only  out  of  proportion,  but  also  are  foetal,  and 
even  primitive  in  their  form,  one  comes  to  realize  that 
human  development  is  an  exceedingly  gradual  process. 
As  an  example,  one  may  cite  the  tragus,  the  promi- 
nence in  front  of  the  external  opening  of  the  ear. 
This  part  is  commonly  conical  in  childhood,  a  condition 
that  very  frequently  exists  before  birth;  and  likewise 
it  occurs  as  often  in  lower  orders  of  the  anthropoid 
family,  such  as  apes. 

The  gradual  nature  of  growth  is  well  shown  in  the 
development  of  the  passage  leading  from  the  throat 
to  the  ear,  the  Eustachian  tube.  This  in  the  foetus 
has  its  nasal  opening  below  the  level  of  the  hard  pal- 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  27 

ate ;  at  birth  the  two  are  on  a  level,  while  in  the  adult 
the  opening  is  considerably  higher.  At  birth  the  tube 
is  about  horizontal,  but  in  the  adult  it  has  changed 
so  much  that  its  course  is  distinctly  downward.  In 
infancy  this  tube,  just  as  we  would  expect,  is  shorter 
than  in  the  adult,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  only 
relatively,  but  also  absolutely  wider  at  its  narrowest 
part  than  in  the  adult.  Not  only  is  this  of  theoretic 
interest,  but  also,  as  such  facts  generally  possess,  it  has 
an  important  utilitarian  relation.  A  practical  proof  of  . 
this  we  see  in  the  facility  with  which  catarrhal  affec- 
tions of  the  nose  and  throat  in  the  very  young  travel  to 
the  middle  ear.  In  the  course  of  development  the 
length  of  the  Eustachian  tube  doubles,  but  the  tym- 
panic orifice  does  not  change  its  size.  In  short,  the 
Eustachian  tube  changes  in  length,  in  size  of  lumen  or 
diameter,  in  direction,  and  in  the  condition  of  its  walls, 
but  the  changes  are  uneven  and  irregular;  so  that  it 
and  the  immediately  adjacent  parts  cannot  be  said  to 
be  in  perfect  working  order  until  a  stable,  in  other 
words,  a  fairly  mature,  condition  exists. 

At  this  early  age  the  inferior  turbinated,  a  thin,  ,  -^  \ 
curled  bone  on  the  outer  wall  of  the  nasal  fossa,  projects 
slightly  into  the  cavity  of  the  nose ;  and  yet,  strangely 
enough,  there  is  only  a  very  minute  expansion  below 
it,  and  none  leading  up  behind  it.  This  part  in  these 
directions  shows  the  greatest  growth.  It  begins  to 
increase   in   height  directly  after  birth,  and  goes   on 


28        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

rather  rapidly  till  the  beginning  of  dentition,  from 
which  time  until  the  third  year  it  is  slow.  After  the 
first  set  of  teeth  is  cut,  the  growth  is  rapid  till  the 
end  of  the  seventh  year.  The  increase  in  breadth 
occurs  in  the  last-mentioned  period,  which  also  is 
the  time  when  the  growth  of  the  olfactory  portion 
is  most  marked.  The  height  does  not  gain  predomi- 
nance till  adult  age.  In  adolescence  the  growth  of 
the  respiratory  portion  takes  place  chiefly  in  the 
middle  meatus.  In  infancy  the  posterior  border  of 
the  vomer  is  very  oblique;  and  with  the  downward 
growth  of  the  jaw,  this  obliquity  is  much  diminished 
at  the  age  of  seven  or  eight  years.  Here  again  we 
see  a  series  of  changes  going  on,  the  very  existence 
of  which  means  not  only  a  change  in  organism,  but 
also  a  corresponding  change  in  functional  life,  and 
we  are  not  apt  to  recognize  how  remarkable  these 
changes  are,  simply  because  they  are  so  gradual.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  bring  up  other  examples  where  the 
varying  conditions  seem  more  strikingly  different.  For 
instance,  in  the  human  foetus,  at  the  sixth  week  hare- 
lip is  a  regular  and  healthy  character.  In  later  life 
it,  is  a  malformation. 

The  development  of  the  teeth  is  very  interesting, 
and  at  the  same  time  demonstrative  of  the  plainly 
provisional  and  transitional  character  of  the  early  years 
of  life.  Even  as  soon  as  the  seventh  month  of  foetal 
life,  the  alveolar  processes  contain  a  series  of  crypts, 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  29 

corresponding  to  the  twenty  milk  teeth,  for  which 
they  later  on  furnish  lodgment.  Soon  the  crowns  of 
all  these  teeth  are  partially  calcified.  In  addition  to 
the  milk  teeth,  the  jaws  contain  the  dental  sacs  of  the 
permanent  incisors,  canines,  biscupids,  and  first  molars. 
The  first  upper  molars  lie  behind  the  second  temporary 
molars,  but  are  not  lodged  in  alveoli  or  sockets ;  indeed, 
at  this  period  of  life  the  crypts  for  the  second  temporary 
molars  have  no  posterior  walls,  and  so  resemble  mere 
depressions  rather  than  clearly  cut  pockets.  In  the 
lower  jaw  the  crypts  for  the  second  temporary  molars 
extend  as  far  back  as  the  bases  of  the  coronoid  pro- 
cesses, the  very  top  of  the  vertical  part  of  the  lower 
jaw,  while  the  first  permanent  molars  lie  underneath 
these  processes.  Thus,  at  the  end  of  foetal  life,  not 
only  are  there  no  independent  crypts  for  the  first 
permanent  molars,  but  also  there  is  no  room  in  the 
alveolar  arches  for  these  teeth,  so  that  in  the  upper 
jaw  they  are  placed  behind  its  tuberosity,^  and  in  the 
lower  one  are  imbedded  in  the  base  of  the  ascending 
ramus.  Thus  one  sees  that  the  development  of  the 
permanent  teeth,  except  the  second  and  third  molars, 
begins  early  in  foetal  life,  and  continues  for  some 
years.  The  germs  of  the  second  molars  appear  a 
little  before  the  end  of  the  first  year,  but  those  of 
the  third  molars  as  late  as  the  fifth  year.     As   if  to 

*  A  rounded  eminence  near  the  angle  formed  by  the  lower  and  poste» 
rior  surfaces  of  the  upper  jaw  bone. 


30        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

emphasize  the  resemblance  between  our  children  and 
a  lower  form  of  life,  a  fourth  molar  is  sometimes  found 
developing  with,  or  shortly  after,  the  other  three.  This 
\/  occurs  generally,  if  not  regularly,  among  the  platyrhine 
apes.  Naturally,  all  these  teeth  undergo  considerable 
developmental  changes  before  their  irruption,  so  that 
their  final  is  quite  different  from  their  early  states. 
An  interesting  fact  is  that  there  is  not  room  in  the 
young  jaws  for  the  teeth,  before  their  irruption,  to 
lie  in  a  series ;  for  this  reason  the  central  incisors 
overlap  the  lateral  ones,  and  the  canines  are  pushed 
up  above  the  other  teeth.  The  elements  of  the  mature 
organism  are  stored  up,  and  come  forth  little  by  little 
as  their  corresponding  functions  are  brought  into  being 
and  action.  This  idea  is  of  universal  application,  and 
holds  good  not  only  for  the  teeth,  but  also  for  the 
entire  body. 
(  While  all  these  changes  are  going  on  in  the  mouth, 

^^-^  the  tongue,  in  its  development,  is  keeping  an  equal 
pace.  Its  shape  and  direction  in  part  are  not  like 
the  adult.  It  is  greatly  wanting  in  vertical  thickness, 
and  is  long  and  low.  Thus  the  soft  palate  rests  like 
a  curtain  upon  it,  and  when  the  mouth  is  closed,  runs 
in  the  main  backward,  descending  very  much  less 
than  in  the  adult.  This  arrangement,  as  one  can  easily 
see,  while  helpful  in  the  infantile  method  of  feeding, 
would  be  of  no  use  to  the  adult ;  its  nature  is  there- 
fore special.     And  one  might  make  the  same  statement 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  31 

concerning  almost  every  part  of  the  young  child's 
body.  It  is  simply  another  illustration  of  the  differ- 
entiation of  function,  and  the  corresponding  changes 
that  must  go  with  it.  Again,  at  the  first  period  of 
life  one  finds  the  uvula,  the  pendant,  soft  lobe  in  the 
middle  of  the  posterior  border  of  the  soft  palate,  not 
merely  small  but  really  rudimentary.  The  follicles  at 
the  back  of  the  tongue  in  a  similar  way  are  very  often, 
instead  of  being  merely  small,  entirely  absent.  The 
pharyngeal  tonsil  is  likewise  rudimentary ;  gradually  it 
appears  and  grows  steadily,  although  slowly.  Its  rate 
of  increase  is  so  small  that  it  contrasts  strongly  with 
that  of  some  neighboring  parts. 

At  the  earliest  stages  the  glands  in  this  region,  a     j-v 
part  of  whose  duty  is  to  secrete  the  starch-changing   ^ 
ferment,  ptyalin,  are  entirely  inactive,  and  the  sugar- 
forming  ferment  practically  does  not  for  some  months 
exist.     Even  afterwards  its  potency  is  noticeably  small. 
The  character  of  its  work  is  almost  experimental,  ten- 
tative.    All  through  this  period  the  evidences  of  un- 
equal growth  are  so  marked  that  one  is  not  surprised 
at  examples  of  arrested  growth,  or  even  of  change  in 
the   opposite   direction.      An   instance    of    this    retro- 
grade development  may  be  found  in  the  thymus  gland,  fLyvw%*« 
that  curiosity  of  the  lower  part  of  the  throat,  which 
is  large  at  birth,  in  fact  almost  as  large  as  the  left 
lung,  and  continues  to  grow  until  the  third  year ;  then 
the  growth  ceases,  and  the  organ  remains  very  much, 


32        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

if  not  entirely,  unchanged  until  near  puberty,  when 
it  begins  gradually  to  fade  away  or  be  replaced  by  a 
mass  of  fat.  In  early  childhood  it  is  so  relatively  large 
that  it  lies  in  both  thorax  and  neck.  It  extends  down 
the  anterior  mediastinum  (the  central  portion  of  the 
cavity  of  the  thorax)  lies  in  two  long  lobes  on  the  peri- 
cardium, in  the  membrane  surrounding  the  heart,  and 
by  its  size,  keeps  apart  the  lungs  and  pleurae  much 
more  than  in  adults.  Its  development  is  curious  on 
account  of  the  large  size  at  birth,  the  temporary  growth, 
the  gradual  atrophy,  and  a  certain  unevenness  in  its 
disappearing,  by  which  it  fades  first  from  the  neck, 
then  from  in  front  of  the  heart,  and  last  of  all,  from 
the  first  segment  of  the  sternum  or  breast  bone.  A 
neighboring  gland,  the  thyroid,  upholds  the  general 
rule  of  eccentric  growth  by  having  its  largest  relative 
size  in  childhood. 

Coming  to  the  neck  one  finds  considerable  change, 
which,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  body,  goes  on  steadily, 
but  irregularly.  Between  infancy  and  adult  life  the 
larynx  sinks,  as  shown  by  its  relation  to  the  vertebral 
column,  for  a  distance  which  is  equal  to  about  two 
vertebrae  and  two  intervertebral  discs.  Outside  of  the 
question  of  absolute  size,  there  is  a  real  difference  in 
relative  positions.  The  top  of  the  epiglottis  moves 
from  about  the  level  of  the  lower  border  of  the  atlas, 
the  first  vertebra  of  the  spine,  to  the  middle  of  the 
third   cervical  vertebra,  and   sometimes    lower.      Con- 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  33 

tinuing  down  the  trachea,  or  wind-pipe,  one  finds  the 
changes  still  going  on,  but  not  in  the  same  degree; 
for  the  bifurcation  of  the  trachea  in  the  newly  born 
is  generally  opposite  the  third  dorsal  vertebra,  but 
in  the  adult  it  is  about  one  vertebra  lower.  The  top 
of  the  sternum  is  placed  higher  in  the  infant  than  in 
the  adult,  and  it  is  relatively  much  smaller,  especially 
those  of  males.  The  only  exception  to  this  is  the  case 
of  some  females,  occasionally  seen,  who  in  this  respect, 
as  in  many  others,  approach  closely  to  the  infantile 
type.  This  resemblance  which  makes  itself  evident  in 
the  characteristic  working  and  the  color  of  the  lungs, 
as  well  as  in  other  viscera,  is  very  interesting,  and 
carries  with  it  conclusions  that  have  an  important  bear- 
ing in  matters  of  general  life.  Joining  the  sternum  are 
the  ribs,  but  in  shapes  that  vary  with  the  passing  years.  .  ^ 
Each  small  epoch  shows  a  change  from  the  preceding 
time  that  should  be  regarded  as  a  step  in  the  progress 
which  leads  to  the  full  evolution  of  the  matured  person. 
In  infant  life  the  third  and  fourth  costal  cartilages  pass 
horizontally  inwards  to  the  sternum,  instead  of,  as  later 
on,  sloping  upwards.  Likewise  the  lower  three  true 
costal  cartilages  have  a  more  horizontal  course,  and 
the  angle  which  these  cartilages  form  (thus  making 
the  boundary  of  the  anterior  wall  of  the  thorax)  is 
much  greater  in  the  young.  The  clavicles,  or  collar- 
bones, likewise  are  different,  being  horizontal  in  the 
very  young,  but  inclined  upward  in  adults. 


34       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

In  all  this  development  the  proportions  of  the  chest 
change  markedly ;  the  transverse  diameter  increases 
more  rapidly  than  the  antero-posterior,  since  at  first 
they  stand  in  the  relation  to  each  other  of  one  to  two, 
while  in  the  fully  grown  they  are  to  each  other  as  one 
is  to  three.  This  and  other  measurements  in  the  same 
region  help  one  to  understand  how  the  child's  thorax 
should  have  the  shape  of  a  blunt  right  cone  as  contrary 
to  the  adult  form  of  reversed  cone.  A  fair  idea  of  the 
change  in  proportions  may  be  obtained  from  the  fact 
that  in  the  infant  the  upper  edge  of  the  sternum  is 
generally  on  a  level  with  the  middle  of  the  second 
dorsal  vertebra;  but  in  spite  of  the  general  growth, 
its  relative  position  is  so  much  altered,  that  before 
development  is  completed,  it  sinks  nearly  to  the  upper 
edge  of  the  third  dorsal  vertebra.  All  in  all,  one  may 
say  that  the  ribs  in  early  life  are  less  oblique,  are 
flatter  and  less  looped  up  than  in  adult  age,  while  at 
the  same  time  the  intercostal  muscles,  until  about  pu- 
berty, exert  very  little  power  over  them.  This  accounts 
for  the  barrel  shape  of  the  young  child's  chest,  as  well 
as  for  his  abdominal  method  of  breathing,  with  which 
every  one  is  familiar.  Thus  one  sees  that  at  various 
times  there  are  various  conditions  of  actual  form ;  this 
implies  a  modified  method  of  characteristic  working, 
with  a  consequent  change  in  the  conclusions  founded 
upon  normal  function. 

The  changes  in  the  heart  are  likewise  quite  note- 
worthy.    In  the  foetal  stages  it  occupies  almost  all  of 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  35 

the  thoracic  cavity,  and  comparatively  is  much  larger 
than  at  any  later  period.  At  birth  it  is  still  relatively 
larger  than  in  the  adult,  so  much  so,  that  calculations 
fhow  the  newly  born  heart  to  be  eighty-nine  hun- 
dredths of  one  per  cent  of  the  body  weight,  while 
the  adult  heart  is  only  fifty-two  hundredths  of  one 
per  cent.  Likewise  are  the  dimensions  different,  for 
on  account  of  the  narrowness  of  the  chest  from  side 
to  side,  and  since  the  vertical  extent  of  the  heart, 
in  relation  to  the  anterior  chest-wall,  is  almost  sim- 
ilar in  infants  and  adults,  it  follows  that  the  trans- 
verse diameter  is  greater  in  the  child.  This  brings 
the  apex  beat  much  nearer  to  the  mammary  line,  or 
outside  of  it,  which  is  quite  different  from  what  one 
sees  in  full-grown  persons.  As  a  result,  the  left  lung, 
having  a  differently  shaped  cavity  to  lie  in  than  in 
later  years,  is  altered  in  form  and  changed  in  po- 
sition. At  the  same  time,  it  is  higher  placed  in 
children,  but  so  curious  are  its  relations  to  the  chest 
walls  at  this  time  of  life,  that  these  are  found  not  to  be 
relatively  low,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are,  when  compared 
to  fixed  points  in  the  spinp^  relatively  high.  Thus  one 
can  easily  see  that  the  whole  condition  is  anomalous. 
The  containing  space,  the  relative  and  absolute  posi- 
tions, the  outline  and  the  form  of  the  youthful  heart, 
are  quite  different  from  what,  they  are  in  later  life. 
Also  the  conus  arteriosus,  th(g  founded  upward  prolon- 
gation of  the  right  ventricle, , is  found  to  lie  closer  to 
the  chest  wall  than  in  the  adult,  so  that  from  the  con- 


36        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

sequent   friction,  an    opaque   white    patch,    called   the 
"  milk  spot,"  is  often  found. 

The  whole  course  of  the  cardiac  development  is  irreg- 
ular, so  that  one  can  find  no  continuous  proportional 
rate  between  its  growth  and  that  of  the  other  viscera, 
such  as  the  liver,  the  lungs,  the  spleen.  This  does  not 
at  all  agree  with  a  priori  expectations,  for  one  would 
naturally  look  for  an  equal  rate  and  manner  of  change 
throughout  the  whole  body.  One  can  merely  make  a 
very  general  statement,  such  as,  that  the  size  of  the 
heart  in  childhood  is  relatively  greater  than  that  of  the 
lungs,  or  that  while  the  heart  doubles  its  size,  the  liver 
increases  only  one-half  of  its  volume.  But  such  state- 
ments, if  only  because  they  are  general,  are  unsatis- 
factory as  far  as  the  view  of  a  regular  and  progressive 
organic  growth  is  concerned.  In  addition,  it  is  easy 
to  see  in  the  early  part  of  life  the  very  unripe  condition 
of  the  heart,  if  only  from  the  fact  that  there  is  very 
little  difference  in  strength  or  appearance  between  the 
right  and  left  ventricles,  while,  later  on,  the  contrary 
is  the  fact.  And  when  one  is  familiar  with  the  tenacity 
with  which  foetal  and  infantile  conditions  persist,  one 
is  not  at  all  surprised  by  this,  or  by  the  common  occur- 
rence at  birth  of  an  open  foramen  ovale,  a  foetal  com- 
munication between  the  two  auricles  of  the  heart,  a 
purely  prenatal  state.  In  fact,  the  farther  one  pro- 
gresses in  the  study  of  organic  development,  the  more 
is  one  impressed  with  the  uneven,  the  unstable,  the 
purely  provisional  nature  of  childhood. 


CHAPTER  III 

Facts  in  the  Comparative  Development  of  the 
Child  (Continued) 

The  changes  in  the  liver  are  just  as  marked  as  ^  \ 
those  in  the  heart.  During  the  second  month  of  foetal 
life,  the  liver  reaches  a  relatively  enormous  size ;  in 
the  third  month,  the  continuation  of  this  growth  brings 
it  far  into  the  hypogastric  region,  and  fills  the  greater 
part  of  the  abdominal  cavity.  Through  the  rest  of 
foetal  life,  as  well  as  in  infancy  and  childhood,  this 
organ  is  far  greater  in  size  relatively  than  it  later  on 
comes  to  be.  It  gradually,  in  proportion  to  the  rest 
of  the  body,  becomes  smaller  and  smaller,  so  that  from 
constituting  one-eighteenth  of  the  body  weight  at  birth, 
it  comes  to  be  only  one  thirty-sixth  in  the  adult.  This 
in  itself  is  sufficiently  noteworthy,  but  looked  at  in  the 
light  of  frequent  eccentric  variations  in  size,  it  loses 
much  of  its  claim  to  a  regular  and  normal  evolution. 
All  that  one  can  say  is,  that  there  is  a  striking  dif- 
ference between  the  infant  and  the  adult.  In  the 
latter  the  liver  ought  not  to  extend  beyond  the  free 
border   of  the   ribs,  and   is   distinctly  confined  to  the 

37 


38  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

right  side  of  the  thorax,  while  in  the  former  it  is 
pushed  down  one  to  two  centimetres  below  the  free 
border  of  the  ribs,  and  sometimes  farther,  and  it  may 
even  invade  the  left  thoracic  region  as  far  as  to  dis- 
place both  lungs  and  heart  to  a  considerable  extent. 
In  some  cases,  though  without  disease,  it  may  grow 
to  a  remarkable  extent,  even  so  far  as  to  fill  up  a  fair 
portion  of  the  abdominal  space.  Likewise,  microscopi- 
cally, there  is  a  tardiness  in  complete  growth,  as 
shown  by  the  arrangement  of  the  liver  cells,  that  is 
remarkable. 

In  foetal  life  there  are  two  main  sorts  of  these  cells : 
one  is  a  polyhedral  form,  much  like  those  of  the  adult 
organ ;  the  other  is  a  small  round  cell  that  gradually 
disappears  with  the  lapse  of  time  after  birth.  This 
is  probably  a  young  stage  of  the  regular  liver  cell. 
However,  it  is  not  for  some  time  after  birth  that  the 
hepatic  cylinders  assume  the  adult  mammalian  type. 
Gradually  they  become  longer  and  narrower,  not  so 
much  by  a  change  in  the  size  of  the  cells  themselves, 
as  by  a  rearrangement  of  them,  so  that  a  cross-section 
of  the  cylinder  shows  the  number  of  the  cells  to  be 
gradually  reduced  to  two.  The  gall  bladder  also  changes 
its  relations,  for  its  fundus  or  base  is  farther  from  the 
anterior  wall  in  children  than  in  adults.  The  full  im- 
portance of  this  cannot  be  rightly  appreciated  unless 
one  gives  it  the  dignity  of  a  deviation  from  an  adult 
normal  type ;   and  extended  observation  shows  widely 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  39 

different  states  in  the  whole  hepatic  system  in  differ- 
ent ages.  In  spite  of  the  late  arrival  of  maturity  in 
most  parts  of  the  body,  this  system  seems  to  follow 
a  rule  of  its  own.  Instead  of  showing  a  slow  increase 
in  absolute  size,  and  a  stationary  relative  condition,  it 
exhibits  a  decreased  relative  size,  and  an  eccentric  abso- 
lute bulk.  Taking  up  the  matter  of  its  characteristic 
function,  the  secretion  of  the  gall  bladder,  the  so-called 
bile,  one  sees  the  workings  of  an  individual  rule.  For 
this  fluid  appears  exceedingly  early,  and  has  even  been 
found  as  soon  as  the  third  or  fourth  month  of  fcetal 
life.  Besides  all  this,  it  also  is  comparatively  more 
profuse  than  its  adult  analogue,  and  is  thinner  in  con- 
sistency. Going  from  this  noteworthy  system,  to  a  V''^'^ 
neighboring  organ,  one  finds  that  the  spleen  is  no  ex- 
ception to  the  rule  of  eccentric  development.  It  oc- 
cupies much  the  same  position  in  both  the  beginning 
and  the  completed  growth,  but  early  in  life  it  is  so 
small  as  to  be  barely  perceptible  to  the  examining 
fingers.  Indeed,  it  is  relatively  as  well  as  actually 
smaller  in  children  than  in  grown  persons,  and  is  like- 
wise very  inactive.  But  on  the  whole,  so  little  of  its 
actual  functions  is  known,  that  one  is  not  justified  in 
making  full  conclusions  concerning  its  development. 

While,  during   the   first  period  of  life,  the  heart  in    /  ^^ 
its  growth  bears  very  little  relation  to  the  developing 
liver,  it  holds  just  as  little  to  the  lungs;  for  while  the 
heart  is  increasing  to  one-fifth  of  its  original  size,  the 


40  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

lungs  take  a  stride  that  augments  their  growth  by 
five-sevenths  of  the  original  volume.  And  from  the 
second  to  the  fourteenth  year  these  organs  do  not 
come  into  any  closer  relationship.  This  connection, 
expressed  graphically,  seems  decidedly  eccentric,  for 
in  infancy  the  heart  is  to  the  lungs  as  one  is  to  three 
and  a  half  or  four.  Then  the  relatively  greater  growth 
of  the  lungs  up  to  the  time  of  puberty  changes  this 
relation  so  that  they  stand  as  one  to  seven  and  three 
tenths.  At  this  time  the  growth  of  the  heart  acceler- 
ates very  noticeably,  so  that  shortly  after  puberty  has 
been  established,  the  proportion  between  the  two  organs 
covers  the  range  of  one  to  five  and  five-tenths  up  to 
one  to  six  and  one-tenth.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
is  a  very  general  (but  only  general)  relation  that  does 
not  exist  in  childhood,  for  the  approximate  growth  of 
the  lungs  resembles  that  of  the  liver,  while  the  heart 
develops  in  a  comparatively  similar  way  to  the  kid- 
neys. 

One  naturally  would  suppose  that  the  relation  be- 
t^^Jtween  the  heart  and  the  arterial  system  is  and  ought 


Cy. 


M 


vv 


to  be  a  close  one ;  forming  parts  of  the  general  circu- 
^  latory  system,  one  would  think  them  so  intimately  con- 

nected that  changes  in  one  would  necessitate  changes 
in  the  other.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  their  relative 
proportions  undergo  material  changes.  In  childhood, 
in  relation  to  the  body  length,  one  finds  a  propor- 
tionally small  heart  and  a  wide  arterial   system ;   but 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  4 1 

by  the  time  of  puberty  these  stand  in  the  relation  of 
a  large  heart  and  a  narrow  arterial  system.  During 
this  time  the  first  mentioned  increases  twelve  times 
its  original  size,  while  the  latter,  in  the  same  period, 
increases  to  only  three  times  its  first  proportions.  One 
may  put  the  matter  in  a  more  graphic  light,  by  stating 
that  in  infancy  the  relation  of  the  volume  of  the  heart 
to  the  width  of  the  ascending  aorta  is  as  twenty-five 
to  twenty,  before  puberty  as  one  hundred  and  forty  to 
fifty-six,  and  after  puberty  as  two  hundred  and  ninety 
to  sixty-one.  An  associated  fact  is  the  resulting  dif- 
ferences in  blood  pressure,  for  the  conditions  in  early 
life  make  for  a  low  tension,  which  is  clearly  seen  in 
the  behavior  of  the  abdominal  viscera;  while  at  and 
after  puberty  one  finds  this  tension  much  higher. 
Naturally,  such  facts  as  these,  taken  in  their  broadest 
significance,  have  much  more  of  a  meaning  than  is 
contained  in  a  numerical  equation.  Indissolubly  con- 
nected with  this  are  problems  of  blood  supply,  excre- 
tion and  secretion,  tissue  change,  and  nutrition  in 
general.  Therefore,  variations  in  blood  pressure  are  of 
the  greatest  interest  to  the  body  at  large,  and  all  its 
functions.  At  the  same  time  the  anomalous  condition 
of  local  differences  in  this  respect  may  be  seen ;  for 
while  the  blood  pressure  in  the  body  as  a  whole  is 
low,  that  in  the  lungs  is  high.  This  is  partly  caused 
by  the  changing  relations  of  the  pulmonary  artery  and 
aorta,   which   in   childhood   bear  the   relation   to  each 


42        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

other  of  forty  to  forty-six,  while  at  full  development 
it  is  changed  to  the  proportion  of  thirty-five  and  nine- 
tenths  to  thirty-six  and  two-tenths.  The  result  is  a 
heightened  carbonic  dioxide  excretion,  and  a  more 
rapid  respiration  in  the  earlier  condition,  and  with  this 
goes  a  greater  nitrogen  percentage.  Without  these 
conditions  the  naturally  great  activity  of  children  would 
be  dangerous  or  impossible,  and  they  would  be  unable 
to  fulfil  one  of  the  conditions  of  growth.  Another  in- 
stance of  uneven  local  development  is  in  the  abdominal 
aorta  and  the  common  iliac  arteries,  which  in  the  first 
few  days  are  greater  than  at  any  time  for  the  succeed- 
ing three  months.  Such  differences  right  themselves 
slowly;  but  even  after  they  have  become  righted,  the 
general  organism  requires  some  time  before  it  is  accus- 
tomed to  the  change. 

In  the  lungs,  during  the  first  two  years  of  life,  the 
walls  of  the  alveoli  or  air  spaces  are  thick,  and  their 
blood-vessels  are  loosely  held.  It  is  not  until  the 
fourth  or  fifth  year  that  the  proportionate  adult  devel- 
opment between  the  alveoli  and  the  bronchi  begins 
to  be  obtained,  and  the  stroma  or  connective  tissue 
frame-work  has  become  dense  and  binding,  restraining 
the  capillaries  as  in  adult  life.  Nevertheless,  in  spite 
of  the  approximation  towards  adult  proportions,  the 
neighboring  parts  do  not  immediately  fall  into  line. 
This  we  see  from  the  fact  that  the  diaphragm,  situated 
just  below  these  structures,   lies   higher   than   in   the 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  43 

adult.  In  infant  life,  the  underlying  loose  tissue  lin- 
ing the  bronchial  tubes  gradually  and  slowly  binds 
the  mucous  membrane  to  the  fibro-muscular  wall. 
From  this  time  it  keeps  pace  in  its  growth  with  the 
other  compact  tissues,  until  in  adult  life  it  appears  as 
dense  fibrous  bands.  Proportionally  the  extent  of 
bronchial  tubes  is  greater  than  that  of  the  air  spaces, 
and  so  presents  quite  a  different  picture  from  what 
may  be  seen  in  adult  life.  The  connective  tissue  of 
the  parts  is  likewise  more  abundant  and  tends  to  a 
proliferation  of  its  cellular  elements.  The  sub-mucous 
connective  tissue  of  the  bronchi  is  loose,  and  more 
abundantly  supplied  with  nuclei,  and  its  vessels  are 
less  loosely  held.  The  cells  lining  the  air  spaces  form 
a  continuous  layer.  The  alveoli  are  small,  their  epi- 
thelium proliferates  abundantly,  and  the  absorbents 
accomplish  their  work  slowly,  the  blood-vessels  play- 
ing a  more  important  r61e  than  later  on.  One  may 
judge  of  the  gradual  nature  of  the  development  in 
the  lungs  from  the  fact  that  not  until  seven  years 
of  age,  and  probably  later,  do  they  reach  their  full 
forward  expansion.  Even  from  this  rapid  and  simple 
account,  one  must  plainly  see  how  broadly  different 
in  the  matters  mentioned  the  child  is  from  the  adult. 
The  difference,  as  has  been  said  before,  is  not  merely 
one  of  size,  but  also  one  of  form,  of  structure,  of  physi- 
cal and  chemical  importance. 

Some  interesting  conditions   are   found  in  the  kid- 


44       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

neys.  In  prenatal  life  they  very  soon  become  lobu- 
lated,  and  continue  sa  until  a  fairly  long  period  after 
birth,  when  these  lobules  slowly  disappear  and  are 
replaced  by  the  so-called  pyramids  of  Malpighi.  The 
kidneys  of  the  infant  are  relatively  larger  than  those 
of  adults,  and  are  situated  lower  down.  This  is  the 
more  noteworthy  from  the  fact  that  the  lumbar  part 
of  the  spine,  where  they  are  placed,  is  relatively  small. 
The  resulting  disproportion  between  the  parts  is  worthy 
of  active  attention.  In  the  newly  born  child  the  two 
kidneys  are  equal  in  volume,  or  at  all  events,  any 
difference  between  them  is  very  small.  During  the 
first  year  this  begins  to  change  in  favor  of  the  left, 
and  so  continues  to  increase.  At  the  same  time  this 
left  kidney  in  childhood  is  higher  placed  than  its  fel- 
low, and  does  not  sink  to  its  level  until  about  seven 
or  eight  years  of  age.  A  curious  fact  is  that  uric  acid 
infarctions,  which  are  purely  prenatal  when  found  in 
healthy  conditions,  commonly  exist  for  some  time  after 
birth.  Later  on  in  life  these  same  infarctions  would 
occur  only  in  a  state  of  pathological  degeneration. 
The  blood  supply  in  these  organs  is  noteworthy,  for 
here  some  remarkable  conditions  are  to  be  found, 
which  weightily  influence  the  health  of  the  child's 
mind  and  body. 

One  would  suppose  that  the  growth  of  an  organ 
would  progress  equally  with  its  blood  supply,  for 
between  them  there  must  exist  a  relation  almost  as 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  45 

strenuous  as  that  of  supply  and  demand.  But  in  the 
kidneys  this  is  found  not  to  hold  good.  In  fact,  it  has 
been  ascertained  that  the  transverse  section  of  the 
former  increases  more  rapidly  than  the  volume  and 
weight  of  the  latter,  and  the  arterial  tension,  which 
depends  upon  the  ease  with  which  the  blood  is  able 
to  flow  through  the  fine  capillaries,  is  thereby  in- 
fluenced. For  this  reason  one  finds  that  children  are 
more  liable  to  renal  congestion  and  other  inflammatory 
conditions  of  the  kidneys  than  adults,  and  this  fact  is 
supported  by  experimental  researches,  which  prove  that 
a  greater  proportional  amount  of  water  can  in  a  given 
time  be  forced  through  the  adult  than  the  immature 
organs.  In  a  somewhat  similar  degree  the  femoral 
artery  increases,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  common 
carotid,  which  in  so  large  a  measure  nourishes  the  upper 
extremity,  follows  an  opposite  rule,  having  relatively  an 
exceedingly  small  and  slow  growth.  Here  again  purely 
experimental  facts  have  the  closest  connection  with 
questions  of  practical  education  and  development.  A 
very  striking  instance  of  irregularity  in  development 
is  found  in  the  suprarenal  capsules ;  for  they  at  birth 
are  as  large  as,  if  not  larger  than,  the  same  structures 
in  adults.  Thus  time  and  time  again  the  evidences  of 
uneven  development  are  multiplied,  and  what  is  true  of 
the  body  at  one  time,  may  at  another  be  totally  false. 
When  one  considers  that  the  average  growth  in  body 
weight  between  birth  and  adult  life  is  about  nineteen 


46  THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE  CHILD 

times  the  original  quantity,   this   stationary  condition 
of  the  suprarenal  capsules  is  noteworthy. 

The  stomach  in  its  development  shows  some  marked 
differences ;  its  growth  is  very  rapid  at  first,  but  after- 
wards it  progresses  more  slowly.  In  infancy  it  is  more 
tubular,  its  position  is  more  vertical  than  in  the  adult, 
and  the  oesophageal  sphincter  is  less  developed.  So 
real  is  this  that  the  act  of  vomiting  in  young  children  is 
not  attended  with  nearly  the  same  amount  of  effort  and 
retching  as  in  older  persons.  Indeed,  this  act  occurs 
with  all  the  eas€  with  which  the  contents  of  a  bag  are 
squeezed  out.  This  facility  is  aided  by  the  slightly 
higher  relative  position  which  the  organ  holds.  In 
short,  the  evidences  of  immaturity,  both  in  the  gross 
and  the  microscopic  arrangements,  persist  for  a  long 
time.  Even  the  ducts  which  are  so  necessary  to  its 
work  do  not  attain  their  permanent  state  until  full 
adult  life,  for  both  before  and  at  birth,  these  ducts 
average  about  seven  glands  to  each  one,  but  after  this, 
owing  to  the  continued  division  of  the  ducts,  the  glands 
are  progressively  divided  up.  This  goes  on  until  at 
adult  life  only  three  glands  go  to  a  duct.  Besides  weak 
peristaltic  powers,  the  functional  secretions  of  the 
stomach  are  of  a  special  sort  in  infants.  These  secre- 
tions in  the  adult  seem  to  possess  the  power  of  dissolv- 
ing cell  envelopes,  thus  setting  free  the  contained 
proteid  matter.  The  infant  is  unable  to  do  this,  for 
its  digestive  powers  appear  to  have  little  or  no  corrosivQ 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  47 

faculty.     On  the  other  hand,  its  ability  to  digest  casein  ( 
is  proportionally  far  in  advance  of  that  of  the  adult,  and  j 
this  is  doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  the  former  has  a  ' 
larger  proportion  of  the  hydrolitic  ferment,  called  renin, 
than  the  latter.     Thus  the  infant  has  its  natural  food  in 
milk,  which  holds  a  large  proportion  of  casein  and  lacks 
all  cell  envelopes.     In  the  same  way  we  find  that  the 
pancreatic  secretions  are  likewise  variable,  for  the  tryp- 
sin and  steapsin  are  barely  active,  and  the  amylopsin 
totally  inert  in  infants.     The  digestive  powers  in  in- 
fancy and  adult  life  differ  both  in  degree  and  kind ;  so 
that  if  we  had  no  other  fact  than  this,  we  should  be 
justified  in  building  up  a  broad  theory  of  differential 
functions  and  development. 

During  infancy  and  childhood  the  intestines  grow 
irregularly,  by  fits  and  starts,  as  it  were ;  their  position 
varies  from  that  of  the  adult,  and  also  they  are  less 
fixed.  The  constriction  which  may  be  found  in  adults 
at  the  junction  of  the  first  and  second  parts  is  com- 
monly absent  in  infants ;  the  transverse  colon  is  rela- 
tively low.  In  the  large  intestine,  up  to  four  months  of 
age,  the  length  remains  quite  stationary.  After  that 
time  a  remarkable  change  takes  place ;  the  upper  por- 
tion begins  to  grow  at  the  expense  of  the  sigmoid 
flexure,  which  at  birth  is  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole 
large  intestine,  while  at  four  months  it  already  assumes 
its  permanent  proportions.  The  ascending  colon  in 
children,  owing  to  the  higher  position  of  the  caecum 


48        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  the  greater  size  of  the  liver,  is  very  short.  This 
part  of  the  colon  has  more  often  a  mesentery  ^  than  in 
the  adult,  and  also  a  relatively  larger  portion  above  the 
caecum  is  invested  with  peritonaeum,  so  that  the  gut  is 
here  absolutely  free.  The  caecum  alone  changes  its 
position  and  relations  so  much  in  the  course  of  develop- 
ment that  the  transitional  nature  of  childhood  is  clearly 
made  apparent. 

About  the  fourth  month  of  foetal  life,  this  part  of 
the  intestines  is  situated  near  the  median  plane,  and  at 
a  higher  level  than  in  the  adult.  As  it  grows,  it  passes 
to  the  right  side,  in  front  of  the  second  part  of  the 
duodenum,  and  then  descends  into  the  iliac  fossa. 
Even  then  it  is  apt  to  be  placed  high  up,  near  the 
anterior  superior  spine  of  the  ilium.  A  corresponding 
position  is  held  by  the  sigmoid  flexure,  hardly  any  of 
which  is  found  in  the  pelvis  until  this  bony  basin  is 
more  widely  spread  out  by  later  development.  Brun- 
ner's  and  Lieberkiihn's  glands,  which  are  necessary 
factors  in  the  final  activity  of  the  bowel,  are  only  par- 
tially developed,  and  the  solitary  and  agminated  glands 
are  rich  in  lymphoid  tissue.  In  fact,  the  whole  lym- 
phatic system  is  remarkably  well  developed  in  early 
life,  and  the  amount  of  lymph  in  circulation  is  greater 
than  it  later  is. 

The  rectum,  as  one  would  expect,  shows  conditions 

^  A  fold  of  the  peritonaeum  by  which  a  portion  of  the  intestinal  canal  is 
attached  loosely  to  the  posterior  wall  of  the  abdomen. 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  49 

somewhat  similar  to  the  main  part  of  the  large  intestine. 
In  the  adult  it  is  situated  entirely  within  the  true  pelvis, 
and  presents  three  curves :  one  in  the  lateral,  and  two 
in  the  anterior-posterior  direction.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  the  infant  a  large  part  of  the  rectum  is  in  the  abdom- 
inal, rather  than  the  pelvic,  cavity  ;  it  is  nearly  straight, 
and  occupies  a  more  or  less  vertical  position.  Its 
attachments  do  not  extend  so  high  in  children,  and  the 
reflection  of  the  peritonaeum  is  placed  lower  down. 
Consideration  of  these  facts  will  explain  the  frequency 
of  certain  infantile  complaints,  such  as  the  easy  pro- 
lapse of  the  rectum,  chronic  constipation,  and  general 
digestive  derangements. 

The  bladder,  also,  instead  of  being  in  the  pelvis,  is,  ^ 
in  early  life,  almost  entirely  an  abdominal  organ.  The  I 
uterus  grows  but  little  from  its  foetal  condition  until 
puberty.  Before  this  time  the  peritonaeum  is  reflected 
quite  over  the  posterior  surface  of  the  bladder,  the 
anterior  surface  of  which  is  always  uncovered  by  this 
membrane  in  children.  In  this  detail  the  difference 
between  children  and  adults,  while  not  great,  is  un- 
mistakable and  constant.  In  the  rectum  also  the 
peritonaeum  is  reflected  over  the  upper  portion,  and 
is  relatively  to  the  adult  condition  lower  down.  The 
prostate  gland,  like  the  uterus,  is  very  small  in  early 
life,  weighing  at  seven  years  only  thirty  grains.  At 
eighteen  or  twenty  years  it  increases  to  two  hundred 
and  fifty  grains.     The  urethra  follows  in  the  same  plan 


50       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

of  being  comparatively  small  until  puberty,  when  its 
growth  takes  a  sudden  bound,  until  the  adult  conditions 
are  attained.  Naturally  enough,  the  anatomy  of  the 
perinaeum  varies  with  that  of  the  neighboring  impor- 
tant parts,  such  as  the  rectum  and  the  bladder,  and 
with  the  general  looseness  of  the  fascicB,  the  sheets  of 
connective  tissue  that  later  on  have  a  dense  consistency, 
at  the  outlet  of  the  pelvis.  The  pelvis  of  course  in- 
creases and  grows  very  materially,  so  much  so,  that 
the  so-called  pelvic  organs,  which  during  childhood  have 
been  more  or  less  in  the  abdomen,  are  gradually  al- 
lowed to  sink  and  find  their  proper  places.  The  change 
is  naturally  seen  more  plainly  in  the  female,  where  the 
broad  pubic  arch  and  the  wide  transverse  diameter  (ex- 
ceeding the  antero-posterior  in  the  adult)  are  character- 
istic of  the  developed  state.  While  one  looks  at  late 
changes  in  the  genito-urinary  system  as  right  and  desir- 
able, nevertheless,  one  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  such  changes  are  merely  stages  in  the  great  evo- 
lution of  men  and  women  from  " Fleisch-Ptippen'' 

The  spine  at  birth  is  quite  different  from  what  it 
finally  grows  to  be.  It  is  broader  and  shorter,  but  at 
the  same  time  the  spinal  cord  descends  lower  than  in 
the  adult  for  about  the  space  of  one  vertebra.  The 
whole  structure  is  very  light  and  flexible,  so  that  it 
may  easily  be  pulled  and  twisted  one  way  and  another. 
It  is  without  its  characteristic  cervical  and  lumbar 
curves,  which  come  into  being  only  after  the  pull  and 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  51 

strain  of  gravity  and  muscular  contraction  are  set  in 
motion  by  added  maturity  and  increasing  exercise. 
The  various  parts  bear  a  changed  proportion  to  each 
other,  for  the  cervical  (which  is  proportionately  longer 
in  children  than  in  adults)  and  lumbar  regions  are 
equal  in  length,  while  in  the  man  they  bear  the  relation 
of  two  to  three.  In  foetal  life  the  proportion  of  the 
movable  part  of  the  spine  in  the  neck  is  greater  than 
that  in  the  loins,  which  is  quite  the  opposite  of  what 
one  finds  in  the  adult,  since  in  the  latter  the  neck  is 
the  less,  being  about  one-fifth,  while  the  loins  are  a 
little  less  than  one-third  of  the  column.  In  later  child- 
hood the  lumbar  part  continues  steadily  to  grow  more 
rapidly  than  the  cervical,  until  a  short  time  after 
puberty,  when  the  adult  proportions  begin  to  be  seen. 
In  childhood  a  thin  layer  of  cartilage  covers  the  upper 
and  lower  surfaces  of  the  vertebras,  which,  however,  is 
so  small  as  to  be  of  little  use  as  a  cushion,  especially 
as  the  rest  of  the  bone  is  not  as  yet  completely  solidi- 
fied. The  consolidation  of  the  bodies  does  not  begin 
till  about  the  fourth  year,  and  goes  on  till  after  the 
eighth;  but  the  epiphyseal  or  end  plates  do  not  form 
till  about  the  seventeenth  year.  The  coccyx,  the  end 
of  the  spinal  column,  is  particularly  late  in  its  devel- 
opment, for  it  does  not  begin  to  ossify  until  puberty, 
and  then  slowly  progresses ;  as  a  result,  the  third 
piece  is  not  hard  until  after  the  sixteenth  year,  and 
the  fourth  piece  until  after  the  eighteenth. 


52       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Q 

J,-^     Some  of  the  most  interesting  changes  may  be  seen 

in  the  nervous  system  ;  by  these  changes  man  develops 
from  a  low  to  a  very  high  stage  of  intellectual  com- 
plexity. But  the  development  is  obtained  only  through 
the  course  of  a  long  and  complex  evolution,  that  extends 
over  the  whole  period  between  conception  and  the  full, 
active  maturity  of  adult  life.  Some  time  since,  Goltz 
made  experiments  on  a  dog  whose  cerebrum  had  been 
removed.  He  demonstrated  the  capacity  of  the  animal 
to  accomplish  many  of  its  bodily  functions  and  instincts 
without  the  exercise  of  the  higher  mental  faculties. 
Its  ability  to  bark,  to  take  food,  to  respond  to  salient 
stimuli,  was  remarkable.  Also,  Longet  amputated  the 
cerebral  hemispheres  of  a  pigeon,  and  kept  the  bird 
alive  for  eighteen  days.  This  bird  showed  ability  to 
blink  the  eyes  and  contract  the  iris  at  the  approach  of 
a  light,  as  well  as  to  follow  the  light  when  it  was  moved 
about ;  likewise  it  could  swallow  food,  as  well  as  per- 
form the  usual  excretory  functions.  In  short,  these 
two  animals,  in  their  maimed  conditions,  were  not  much 
removed,  so  far  as  fulfilling  the  ordinary  needs  of  phys- 
ical life  is  concerned,  from  the  recently  born  infant. 
In  addition,  an  examination  of  the  young  brain  would 
lead  one  to  suppose  this  condition,  and  continued  ex- 
amination demonstrates  the  gradual  development  from 
a  primitive  condition  of  simplicity  into  a  state  of  normal 
responsible  intelligence. 

In  children  the  brain  is  large,  but  chemically  it  con- 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  53 

tains  a  large  percentage  of  water ;  it  is  therefore  softer 
than  in  adult  life,  and  the  specific  gravity  is  lower.  Its 
gray  and  white  substances  differ  very  little  from  each 
other  in  color  and  composition.  And  not  only  in  the 
brain,  but  also  in  almost  all  the  tissues,  there  is  a 
marked  difference  in  cell  formation  between  the  young 
and  the  old.  The  difference  is  not  merely  one  of  size 
and  quantity  of  cells  ;  rather  is  it  a  great  distinction  in 
the  elaboration  of  cell  matter,  so  that  the  cells  of  the 
infant  are  nothing  more  than  variants  of  the  cells  of 
the  adult.  In  the  former  one  finds  a  relatively  large 
nucleus  and  a  small  portion  of  cytoplasm  (cell-contents), 
while  in  the  latter  the  opposite  is  the  fact.  Hodge  ^ 
not  long  ago  summarized  this  as  well  as  the  differences 
in  pigmentation,  in  so  clear  a  manner  that  the  least 
attention  will  convince  one  of  the  widely  separated 
structures  of  the  two  organisms. 

It  seems  to  be  generally  agreed  that  the  number  and 
extent  of  the  convolutions  of  the  brain  bear  some  close 
relation  to  the  intellectual  power  of  the  subject.  This 
is  interesting,  in  view  of  the  conditions  which  one  finds 
in  early  life.  The  morphological  development  is  very 
slow  —  so  slow,  in  fact,  that  some  important  cells,  such 
as  Purkinje's  cells  in  the  cerebellum,  have  no  properly 


Nucleoli 

Vol.  of 

OBSBRVABLB   IN 

Pigment 

Pigment 

Nuci-Eos 

Nuclei 

MUCH 

little 

At  birth      .     . 

.     .      100% 

in  53% 

In  old  age  .     . 

•     •       54-2 

in    5% 

67% 

33% 

54        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

characteristic  appearance  until  after  birth.  Even  then 
the  brain  has  not  in  its  essential  parts  really  become 
differentiated.  According  to  the  discoveries  of  Bin- 
swanger,  the  fully  formed  ganglion  cells  are  not  present 
in  the  cerebrum  for  at  least  two  months,  and  it  takes 
until  after  this  time,  according  to  the  authority  of 
Sernoff,  for  the  cerebral  convolutions  to  develop.  The 
mere  fact  that  these  elements  begin  to  grow  is  very  far 
from  the  idea  that  they  are  as  yet  of  any  use ;  many 
changes  must  take  place  before  that  occurs.  Some  of 
these  changes  may  be  seen  by  the  alteration  in  the 
position  of  well-known  landmarks ;  thus  the  Sylvian 
fissure,  instead  of  being  at  the  level  of  the  anterior 
part  of  the  squamous  suture  between  the  temporal  and 
parietal  bones  (as  one  finds  it  in  adults)  is  one-half  inch 
above  it.  These  parts,  although  their  development  is 
more  or  less  continuous,  do  not  attain  their  permanent 
relations  until  the  child  is  nine  years  old.  An  equally 
important  change  takes  place  in  the  fissure  of  Rolando, 
which  gradually  alters  both  position  and  direction. 
These  are  cited  merely  as  instances ;  the  rule  which 
they  exemplify  holds  good  for  the  rest  of  the  cerebral 
structures.  For  seven  or  eight  years  the  development 
in  size  and  complexity  is  rapid.  From  that  time  until 
after  puberty  it  is  slower  and  then  progressively  gets 
weaker  and  smaller  until  full  maturity. 

The  microscopic  changes  are  just  as  noteworthy  as 
the  gross.     We  see   this  when  we  look  at   the  foetal 


B 


Ai 


Spinal  ganglion  cells  of  a  still-born 
male  child,    if,  nuclei. 


Spinal  ganglion  cells  of  a  man  Ayiug 
at  ninety-two  years. 


X  250  diameters. 


0 


Nerve  cell  from  the  ante  n  nary  ganglion 
of  a  honey  bee,  just  emerged  In  the 
perfect  form. 


Nerve  cells  from  same  region  (as  in  C) 
of  an  aged  honey  bee. 


Showing  changes  in  nerve  cells  due  to  age. 

In  the  old  man  the  cells  are  not  large,  the  cytoplasm  is  pigmented,  th«  nucleus  la 
small,  and  the  nucleolus  mnch  shrunken  or  absent.    (Hodge.) 


5 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  55 

state,  where  all  the  cells  are  isolated  from  each  other. 
These  cells,  in  order  to  be  of  real  use,  must  grow  and 
bud  and  throw  out  branches,  which  later  on  come  to 
interlace,  like  the  leaves  in  a  forest.  But  in  the  early 
conditions,  either  they  have  no  branches,  or,  if  they 
have,  these  branches  have  no  connections  in  common, 
by  which  they  are  able  to  transmit  impulses.  More- 
over, there  is  a  fierce  struggle  for  nourishment,  if  not  <^ 
for  existence,  among  the  young  nerve  elements,  so  that 
their  initial  presence  does  not  necessarily  mean  their 
continued  growth.  Mistakes  in  nutrition,  adverse  cir- 
cumstances of  any  kind,  tend  to  make  their  struggle 
for  existence  harder  than  it  naturally  would  be,  and 
although  attending  circumstances  be  favorable,  never- 
theless the  struggle  must  be  hard.  Even  where  they 
remain  intact,  considerable  time  must  pass  before  they 
are  able  in  an  efficient  way  to  carry  out  their  peculiar 
functions.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  the  earliest  time  of  a 
person's  life,  the  conducting  fibres  between  the  unde- 
veloped brain  and  the  pyramidal  fibres  of  the  spinal 
cord  perform  no  functions.  As  these  fibres  are  the 
pathway  by  which  impulses  are  carried  from  the  brain 
to  the  body,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  impulses  are 
not  transmitted,  just  in  the  same  way  and  as  surely 
that  the  impulses  themselves  cannot  immediately  be 
produced,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  brain  does  not 
as  yet  possess  all  of  its  constituent  elements  in  a  suffi- 
ciently mature  condition  to  elaborate  the  characteristic 


56       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

functions.  The  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  most  of  a 
child's  earliest  and  many  of  his  later  movements  are 
purely  reflex,  not  necessarily  dependent  upon  the  higher 
i  centres.  For  intelligent  movements  are  merely  the 
palpable  working  out  of  nerve  tissue  which  is  suffi- 
ciently elaborated  for  its  peculiar  functions.  Fully  to 
carry  out  these  functions,  several  requirements  must  be 
met.  One  of  these  is  the  medullation  of  the  nerv^e 
^^/"J  fibres.  At  birth  the  central  nervous  system,  as  well  as 
the  peripheral  system,  is  almost  entirely  unmedullated. 
Stated  otherwise,  they  are  in  an  imperfect  and  unde- 
veloped state.  And  for  this  reason  Flechsig  has 
pointed  out  distinctly  that  the  newly  born  brain  is 
"  unripe." 

As  the  child  grows,  each  distinct  advance  is  marked 
by  a  clear  increase  in  the  medullation.  The  parts, 
which  are  first  able  to  perform  their  functions,  first 
receive  their  myelin  sheaths,  so  that  a  fairly  good  idea 
of  the  developing  abilities  of  an  animal  may  be  obtained 
by  ascertaining  the  extent  to  which  medullation  has 
progressed.  As  a  matter  of  experience,  we  know  that 
the  purely  somatic  functions  and  reflexes  exist  before 
1  the  higher  mental  qualities  come  into  being ;  just  as, 
analogously,  we  know  that  the  secretion  of  the  gall 
precedes  that  of  the  gastric  juices,  which  help  to 
break  up  solid  food.  Therefore,  we  find  the  fibres  of 
the  spinal  cord,  medulla  oblongata,  potts  varolii,  and 
corpora    quadrigemina  —  all    mainly    somatic  —  to    be 


B 


Foetus  of  28  weeks. 


O    0     ^e 


f^-^'C     II 

•  "X  ♦*VL* 


IV 


'•o»-»  V 

e 
Fcetas  of  82  weeks. 


o  e  ^ 

1     ' "  • 

ChUd  at  birth. 


>M3 


Man  at  maturity. 


Sketch  showing  the  increase  in  the  nntnber  and  size  of  the  cell-bodies  in  the  bnm*- 
ture  and  mature  human  cortex.     (After  Vignal.) 

I-y ,  layers  of  the  cortex  according  to  the  enumeration  of  Meynert. 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  57 

medullated  long  before  the  higher  centres  in  the 
cerebrum.  Likewise  one  can  easily  see  the  reason  of 
all  the  unrestrained  and  objectless  movements  of  in- 
fancy, from  the  fact  that  the  inhibitory  centres  become 
"ripe"  much  later  than  the  peripheral  nerves.  Thus 
the  nerves  whose  action  brings  on  movement  are  set 
in  motion  before  those  that  restrain  and  control  move- 
ment. The  result  must  be  an  unmeasured  muscular 
exercise  that  is  characteristic  of  a  low  form  of  develop- 
ment. And  not  only  the  nerve  fibres,  but  also  the 
main  and  secondary  branches  of  the  nerve  cells,  must 
be  medullated.  This  full  growth  occurs  still  later  and 
very  gradually.  One  can  see  at  increasing  ages  the 
slow  advance  of  this  process,  as  the  cells  throw  out 
their  branches  from  year  to  year,  at  first  in  small 
separated  groups,  which  grow  and  spread  until  they 
finally  merge  together  between  puberty  and  adult  life ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  process  is  slow, 
and  for  a  long  time  confined  to  small  localized  areas. 
Likewise  one  must  remember  that  even  when  the 
branching  out  is  in  process  of  formation,  the  results 
of  its  activity  are  tentative  and  unreliable. 

One  obtains  a  most  convincing  experience  in  study- 
ing the  development  and  growth  of  the  nerve  branches. 
The  nerve  cells  exist  at  first  without  them,  and  acquire 
them  very  slowly  and  gradually.  First  a  process  of 
cytoplasm  pushes  its  way  out  more  gently  and  tenderly 
than  a  wonderfully  fine   shoot  grows  out  from  a  root 


58        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

through  the  surrounding  soil.  This  process  is  called 
the  neuron,^  After  a  sufficient  period  of  growth  it 
begins  to  divide  and  subdivide,  so  that  finally  a  mass 
of  the  finest  shoots  spreads  out  on  both  sides  and  in 
front.  These  are  called  dendrons.  Now  the  capacity 
both  to  receive  and  deliver  impulses  is  a  function  of 
these  branches  and  their  end  pieces ;  and  also  they 
must  be  still  further  differentiated  so  that  they  may 
determine  which  shall  conduct  the  efferent  and  which 
the  afferent  impulses.  Thus  the  shape  of  the  cell  and 
the  number  of  its  branches  have  a  most  important 
bearing  upon  the  nervous  activity  of  the  person. 

In  all  probability  the  cell  bodies  make  up  less  than 
ten  per  cent  of  the  entire  weight  of  the  central  system, 
so  that  the  remaining  ninety  per  cent  must  be  made  up 
of  neurons,  dendrons,  and  other  similar  tissues.  In  the 
vertebrate  series  the  cortical  cells  tend  to  possess  more 
branches  in  direct  ratio  to  the  high  position  which  the 
animal  occupies  in  the  zoological  series.  The  higher 
the  animal   and  the  more  complicated  and  fruitful  its 

^  It  is  obviously  impossible  to  give  a  full  history  of  cytogenesis.  If  one 
wanted  to  do  this,  one  would  have  to  delve  into  the  complexities  of  den- 
drones  and  dendrites,  of  neurons  and  neurones,  of  axones,  collaterals, 
telodendrites,  of  arkyochrome,  stichochrome  and  gryochrome  cells.  Such 
reading  is  plainly  for  the  scientist  who  has  a  fair  measure  of  precedent 
knowledge  in  this  field.  The  best  that  one  can  do  is  to  refer  the  reader 
who  may  be  anxious  for  further  knowledge  to  the  works  of  such  men 
as  His,  von  Leubossek,  Retzius,  Ramon  y  Cajal,  Kolliker,  and  others 
like  them  who  have  done  such  wondrous  things  in  this  fascinating 
department  of  research. 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  59 

physiological  economy,  the  greater  the  number  of  these 
branches  must  be,  and  Cajal's  figures  show  positively 
that  each  cell  passes  from  a  condition  in  which  it  has 
no  or  few  off-shoots  into  one  final  state,  in  which  it 
has  an  exceedingly  great  many ;  and  that  this  increase 
grows  steadily,  but  with  progressively  greater  slowness, 
up  to  the  time  of  maturity.  In  addition,  all  the  medul- 
lated  neurons  are  in  their  early  history  unmedullated, 
the  process  being  completed  with  great  deliberation. 
Thus,  even  if  the  medullation  in  the  peripheral  system 
was  for  the  main  part  completed  in  the  first  seven 
years,  nevertheless  several  more  years  would  be  needed 
before  the  process  had  spread  sufficiently  far  in  all 
directions  to  put  the  child  on  a  plane  approaching  that 
of  the  adult.  Especially  does  this  seem  true  when  one 
realizes  that  the  main  advances  in  the  first  few  years 
are  in  the  motor  and  sensory  fibres,  and  that  these 
fibres  make  up  only  one-third  of  the  whole  area  of  the 
cortical  surface,  the  other  two-thirds  being  reserved  for 
higher  uses. 

Still  another  important  factor  in  nerve  development 
is  the  presence  of  chromatin  granules.  Unfortunately, 
our  knowledge  of  these  bodies  is  as  yet  limited,  but 
nevertheless  we  are  certain  that  they  are  closely 
associated  with  the  functional  activity  of  nerve  struc- 
tures, and  that  they  are  absent  in  the  very  young. 
As  the  animal  increases  in  power  and  functional 
activity,  these  granules  grow  more  and  more  evident. 


6o       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Thus,  when  we  see  a  puppy  sprawling  about,  unable 
to  walk  after  the  fashion  of  his  kind,  and  unable  to 
see,  we  must  assign  the  cause  not  necessarily  to  physi- 
cal weakness  and  stupidity,  but  simply  to  the  fact  that 
the  animal's  nerves  are  not  yet  medullated,  that  as 
yet  he  does  not  possess  the  sufficient  amount  of  chro- 
matin granules,  that  as  a  whole  his  nervous  system 
is  "unripe."  The  same  idea  is  true  of  children.  They 
are  different  from  adults  not  merely  in  size,  stature, 
strength,  and  experience,  but  much  more  in  the  ineffi- 
cient development  of  their  various  organs.  Their 
helpless  condition  is  not  necessarily  due  to  lack .  of 
strength,  but  rather  to  inability  to  use  the  strength 
which  they  possess.  One  should  call  to  mind  the 
well-known  experiments  of  Dr.  L.  Robinson  on  sixty 
new-born  infants.  He  proved  that  they  were  able  to 
hang  by  their  hands  from  a  stick  for  thirty  seconds. 
This  is  almost  as  remarkable  a  performance  as  walk- 
ing, and  involves  a  striking  amount  of  strength.  The 
reason  why  this  strength  can  be  used  is,  that  the 
clutching  and  grasping  faculty  is  one  of  the  first 
somatic  functions  to  be  developed,  that  the  nerve 
cells  controlling  this  function  are  subject  to  an  ex- 
ceedingly early  elaboration.  The  children,  as  a  whole, 
are  "  unripe "  ;  they  stand  in  the  place  of  the  chrys- 
alis, of  the  immature  animal  that  is  so  far  different 
from  its  fully  grown  model  as  almost  to  merit  the 
name  of  a  different  creature. 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  6 1 

Thus,  for  instance,  as  soon  as  one  looks  at  a  baby's 
brain,  one  is  able  immediately  to  see  why  he  cannot 
walk  like  an  adult,  for  outside  of  the  microscopical 
changes,  the  cerebellum,  where  the  function  of  coordi- 
nation is  seated,  is  relatively  much  smaller  than  the 
cerebrum.  In  addition,  one  sometimes  finds  primitive 
conditions  in  this  part,  which  show  that  development 
must  bridge  over  a  great  chasm  before  useful  func- 
tions exist  in  a  normal  state.  Thus  one  may  mention 
the  median  occipital  fossa  noted  by  Lombroso  in  con- 
nection with  the  hypertrophy  of  the  vermis  of  the 
cerebellum,  which  sometimes  occurs  in  the  very  young 
human  being.  This  condition  regularly  occurs  in  the 
lower  apes.  For  similar  reasons  one  would  conclude 
that  useful  and  reliable  sight  comes  to  the  child  more 
slowly  than  is  commonly  believed.  Just  as  in  walk- 
ing the  loose  and  unregulated  movements  of  the  legs 
become  rarer  and  rarer,  so  the  ability  to  see  clearly, 
to  understand  the  meaning  of  distance,  to  grasp  the 
idea  of  the  third  dimension  in  space,  has  a  very  grad- 
ual, even  slower  growth.  In  the  real  sense  of  the 
term,  the  child  for  some  weeks  does  not  see  at  all, 
and  for  a  long  time  he  sees  very  imperfectly.  His 
first  distinctions  are  merely  those  of  light  and  dark- 
ness, then  the  warm  colors,  and  finally  the  colder 
ones,  with  their  various  shades.  Professor  Preyer, 
wishing  to  get  positive  information  on  this  subject, 
trained  his  young  child  by  daily  practice  in  discrimi- 


62       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

nating  between  the  various  colors.  When  the  child 
was  almost  two  and  one-half  years  old,  although  he 
could  pick  out,  with  fairly  good  accuracy,  such  strongly 
marked  hues  as  red,  yellow,  and  black,  nevertheless  he 
seemed  absolutely  unable  to  distinguish  green,  blue, 
gray,  and  orange.  And  even  in  the  fourth  year  he 
failed  to  recognize  the  difference  between  blue  and 
gray.  This  case  is  all  the  more  impressive,  because 
the  child  had  a  special  training,  as  well  as  environ- 
ments, which  naturally  would  be  productive  of  good 
results.  But  one  cannot  easily  abolish  the  limitations 
of  nature. 

In  these  chapters  I  have  been  forced,  on  account  of 
the  wealth  of  material,  to  use  many  isolated  facts.  A 
complete  account  of  all  the  slow  changes  that  make 
the  child  so  widely  different  from  the  adult  would  in- 
clude almost  every  item  of  physical  and  mental  growth. 
There  was  a  real  necessity  of  picking  out  only  enough 
to  form  the  outlines  of  a  picture.  But  the  picture 
should  be  so  plain  that  any  one  and  every  one  may  know 
the  meaning  of  it.  This  meaning  includes  the  clear 
facts  that  an  infant's  development  is  not  a  rigidly  im- 
movable process,  that  it  progresses  slowly  and  irregu- 
larly, and  that  during  its  course  the  child  is  in  so 
unstable  a  condition  that  no  strain  should  be  put  upon 
his  faculties.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  an  organism  which 
is  in  a  condition  of  unstable  equilibrium  may,  by  seem- 
ingly slight  causes,  be  injuriously  affected.     Where  the 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  6$ 

organic  elements  are  so  delicate,  where  their  relations 
are  so  changing,  where  so  long  a  time  is  necessary 
to  insure  their  normal  and  healthful  completion  of 
growth,  it  must  be  clearly  evident  that  the  artificial 
conditions  which  constitute  their  environment  must 
play  an  important  part  in  deciding  the  value  of  their 
ultimate  activity.  Such  things,  taken  together,  go  to 
form  a  child's  nutrition,  for  this  term  cannot  rightly 
be  used  to  designate  only  his  food. 

On  the  contrary,  every  fact  which  affects  metabolism, 
tissue-change,  must  be  included  in  this  term,  nutrition. 
The  conservation  of  energy  in  motor  impulses,  sense 
impressions,  physical  exercises,  comes  within  the  boun- 
daries of  this  category.  The  child  whose  sense  of 
sight  is  wrongly  or  too  early  taxed,  whose  power  of 
food-assimilation  is  abused,  whose  order  of  mental  de- 
velopment is  ignored,  is  suffering  from  poor  nutrition. 
This  child  who  prematurely  participates  in  experiences 
and  ways  of  living,  who  is  allowed  to  wander  outside 
of  the  limits  that  a  conservative  idea  of  growth  im- 
poses, who  becomes  subject  to  conditions  that  only  the 
strength  of  maturity  can  withstand,  is  thus  subjected 
to  adverse  conditions  that  must  surely  leave  their  mark 
upon  his  later  organic  form.  Such  a  child  is  suffering 
from  a  vicious  nutrition.  The  child  who  assumes  re- 
sponsibilities beyond  his  years,  who  undergoes  the 
wear  and  tear  attending  the  course  of  a  too  rapid 
development,  who  lacks  the  benefits  of  a  wise  restraint 


64        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  discipline,  is  bound  to  show  the  effects  in  a  partial 
and  one-sided  development  that  bars  him  out  from  the 
full  beauty  of  finished  maturity.  Such  a  child  suffers 
from  the  effects  of  a  misdirected  and  vicious  nutrition. 
We  have  the  word  of  M.  de  Lavelaye,  a  wise  man  in 
his  generation,  that  success  in  life  does  not  mean 
proficiency  in  money-making,  in  professional  skill,  or 
in  any  form  of  special  activity.  Rather  it  means  that 
a  man  should  represent  the  best  civilization  of  his  time, 
that  he  should  stand  for  intellectual  strength,  moral 
strength,  that  he  should  be  strong  in  his  affections, 
amenable  to  proper  authority,  mindful  of  his  natural 
and  artificial  limitations.  Such  a  man  would  represent 
the  finest  flower  of  human  life ;  his  presence  would 
be  an  inspiration  and  an  example  to  all  who  come 
in  contact  with  him.  At  the  same  time,  the  fact  of 
his  existence  would  mean  that  every  part  of  him 
stands  in  absolute  harmony  with  his  whole  organiza- 
tion. There  could  be  no  one-sidedness,  no  atrophy 
of  one  function  associated  with  hypertrophy  of  another. 
Such  a  man  would  represent  the  workings  of  a  system 
which  nourished  in  the  proper  order  and  manner  every 
group  of  cells  in  his  body.  And  when  his  nutrition 
was  so  devised  as  to  bring  him  into  the  best  working 
with  his  environment,  he  would  naturally  attain  the 
excellence  which  we  now  look  upon  as  an  ideal.  The 
more  one  regards  the  facts  in  these  two  chapters  as 
truths  of  fair  observation,  the  more  one  is  forced  to 


FACTS  IN  COMPARATIVE  DEVELOPMENT  6$ 

feel  that  the  ultimate  condition  of  a  child  is  dependent 
upon  a  law  which  embraces  these  truths  along  with 
many  others  in  a  generalization  which  must  cover 
the  whole  range  of  human  experience.  Such  a  gen- 
eralization, stated  not  too  strongly,  would  convey  the 
impression  that  a  child  is  the  creature  of  surrounding, 
modifying  influences,  that  he  is,  to  a  large  extent,  what 
his  environment  makes  him,  that  in  the  first  place, 
the  responsibility  for  his  development  rests  heavily 
upon  those  who  provide  the  environment. 

It  is  always  a  good  thing  to  know  where  one  stands, 
to  know  the  effects  of  one's  acts,  to  know  what  measure 
of  praise  or  blame  one  deserves.  Thus,  in  so  far  as  the 
mind  is  free,  can  one  mark  out  a  path  along  which  to 
walk.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  this ;  and 
whatever  truth  it  has  applies  strongly  to  one's  relations 
to  children.  It  must  ever  be  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
recognize  how  far  their  true  development  is  indepen- 
dent, and  how  far  it  is  bound  up  with  a  knowledge  of 
their  evolution  from  exceedingly  low  forms,  by  means 
of  carefully  modifying  circumstances,  into  forms  of  won- 
derful complexity  and  fineness. 


CHAPTER   IV 

Comparative  Importance  of  Heredity  and 

Environment 

"Like  to  like"  is  a  common  expression  ;  "like  from 
like  "  is  as  commonly  understood.  The  fact  of  related 
forms  and  functions  usually  implies  a  connection  and 
similarity  in  origin  and  development.  One  knows  from 
ordinary  experience  that  roses  produce  roses,  that 
horses  bear  horses ;  what  is  more,  one  expects  a  still 
further  distinction ;  an  American  Beauty  rose  never 
grows  from  a  Mar^chal  Neil,  nor  does  an  HamJDletonian 
mare  give  birth  to  a  Percheron.  In  addition  still,  suc- 
cessful attempts  have  been  made  by  growers  of  plants 
and  breeders  of  animals  to  control  to  some  extent  the 
character  of  the  respective  progeny.  Following  such 
efforts,  some  of  the  best  results  of  intelligent  applica- 
tion have  been  accomplished.  By  crossing  roses  of  a 
particular  size  and  color,  the  size  and  color  of  the  off- 
spring plant  —  as  everyone  knows  —  may  be  approxi- 
mately determined.  And  so  certainly  is  speed  in  the 
parent  horses  bound  to  develop  speed  in  the  foals  that 
the  get  of  prize-winners  merely  upon  the  form  of  the 
parents  command  a  high  price. 

66 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  6^ 

Most  people,  reasoning  from  such  ordinary  facts  as 
these,  believe  that  children  in  their  nature  follow  that 
of  the  parents,  and  they  expect  a  brilliant  father  to 
have  a  brilliant  son,  just  as  they  look  for  a  moral- 
minded  child  from  moral-minded  parents.  So  confident 
is  their  reliance  upon  this  rule  that  an  exception  to  it 
provokes  curious  and  wondering  comment.  A  man 
whose  parents  are  criminal  is  regularly  looked  upon 
with  suspicion,  just  as  a  criminal  whose  parents  are 
respectable  is  regarded  with  even  more  disfavor,  if  that 
is  possible,  than  is  his  fellow-sinner,  whose  heredity  is 
bad.  Most  persons  go  even  farther  than  this :  they 
expect  a  man's  occupation  or  the  acquired  character- 
istics which  his  occupation  entails,  to  influence  his 
child's  character.  Facility  in  certain  trades  and  apti- 
tude for  various  professions  have  often  enough  been 
traced  to  the  fact  that  one  or  both  parents  had  acquired 
an  experience  in  these  vocations.  Scars  and  mutilations 
in  the  parent  commonly  serve  as  good  cause  in  many 
people's  mind  for  the  accidental  occurrence  of  approxi- 
mately similar  markings  in  their  offspring.  If  a  clergy- 
man has  a  wild  son,  the  friends  and  relatives  feel  that 
the  boy  is  a  lapse  from  the  expected  order  of  things, 
a  sort  of  freak  of  nature.  Nevertheless,  Galton,  an 
authority  in  questions  of  heredity,  believes  that  clear 
reasoning  will  show  grounds  for  expecting  such 
"freaks." 

Extended  observation  will  show  that  such  cases  of 


68        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

resemblance  are  largely  coincidences.  The  more  con- 
sideration one  gives  to  the  matter,  the  more  one  finds 
exception  to  the  common  rule  of  expecting  a  man's 
children  to  be  an  imitation  of  him,  or  even  of  expecting 
the  child  to  represent  the  sum  of  father  and  mother. 
In  the  simplest  organisms,  such  as  protozoa,  on  account 
of  the  simplicity  of  the  elements  involved,  this  would 
be  the  fact ;  for  here  one  would  have  creatures  practi- 
cally alike  and  homogeneous,  which  have  been  created 
by  the  cutting  in  two  of  the  parent.  There  would  be 
no  question  of  artificial  circumstances,  of  artificial  ad- 
justment to  environment,  of  acquired  tendencies  to  be 
considered.  In  fact,  in  all  the  lower  forms  of  life,  the 
question  of  reproduction  is  less  complex  than  in  the 
higher.  Thus  one  might  divide  a  hydra  into  small 
pieces,  and  from  any  one  of  them  a  new  creature  could 
grow.  Or,  by  planting  a  slip  of  a  begonia  in  the 
ground  a  whole  plant  might  be  started.  But  as  soon 
as  one  has  to  do  with  the  higher  order  of  animals,  dif- 
ferent conditions  come  into  play ;  there  is  an  added 
complexity  of  development  and  function,  and  with  this 
added  complexity  come  countless  elements  to  make  the 
equation  so  much  harder  to  solve.  Descent  is  no 
longer  a  matter  of  simple  fission  of  cells,  a  plain  repro- 
duction of  a  homogeneous  material.  Rather  it  is  an 
elaboration  of  many  different  sorts  of  tissue,  which  have 
the  possibility  of  assuming  the  most  intricate  functions. 
Thus  in  man  one  has  the  most  complex  being,  who  is 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  69 

affected  in  his  physical  and  mental  constitution  by 
countless  ancestors,  each  one  of  whom  has  contributed 
a  share  to  make  up  the  present  whole.  By  the  very  fact 
of  his  complexity  of  constitution  and  functional  arrange- 
ment, he  makes  up  a  problem  that  is  quite  different  from 
anything  that  lower  animals  offer  us.  In  reasoning 
about  him,  one  is  very  apt  to  confuse  purely  personal 
and  acquired  traits,  that  are  the  result  of  circumstance, 
with  facts  of  rigid  inheritance  that  circumstances  can 
never  alter. 

There  is,  besides,  one  important  factor  in  his  descent 
that  is  almost  entirely  absent  from  the  descent  of  all 
other  creatures.  In  them  there  is  practically  a  clear 
line  of  ancestors,  most  of  which  lived  in  the  same 
places,  in  the  same  conditions,  under  the  same  influ- 
ences. The  changes  that  have  been  traced  in  them  are 
slow,  gradual,  and  directly  attributable  to  adaptation  to 
environment.  The  Indian  tiger  has  had  no  opportunity 
to  be  crossed  with  the  American  jaguar,  nor  does  the 
horse  breed  with  the  cow.  Each  kind  of  animal  follows 
a  general  system  of  in-breeding  that  keeps  its  strain 
fairly  pure  and  simple.  Cases  of  commingling  and  inter- 
breeding from  widely  separated  sources  are,  therefore, 
not  common.  And  thus  the  main  characteristics  have 
been  preserved  with  a  remarkable  degree  of  purity.  In 
man  the  opposite  is  the  case.  For  countless  ages,  as 
the  result  of  victory  and  conquest,  of  migration,  of 
travel,  of  curiosity,  of  intelligence,  of  many-sided  ne- 


70        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

cessity,  he  has  been  moving  about  in  habitable  lands, 
making  all  sorts  of  social,  domestic  and  political  con- 
nections, both  transient  and  permanent,  with  the  result 
that  his  race  is  a  most  strikingly  mixed  one,  mixed  be- 
yond hope  of  picking  out  —  among  civilized  peoples  at 
least  —  a  really  pure  strain.  There  is  no  class  of  ani- 
mals, even  in  the  remotest  wood  or  jungle,  that  is  so 
utterly  tangled  in  its  heredity.  As  instances  of  this 
process  of  mixing,  one  may  cite  some  of  the  very  inter- 
esting studies  in  anthropology,  recently  made,  which 
have  picked  out  the  trails  of  wandering  peoples,  and 
their  effects  upon  the  characters  of  the  people  of  the 
traversed  localities.  The  deeper  the  study  is  pursued, 
the  less  can  one  believe  in  a  "pure  strain."  The  prog- 
ress of  the  Teutons  alone  is  most  instructive.  They 
had  certain  characteristics,  among  which  were  tall  stat- 
ure and  fair  complexion.  All  over  the  map,  wherever 
these  "  greasy  seven-foot  giants  "  have  gone,  they  have 
stamped  these  characteristics  upon  the  population,  so 
that  centuries  have  not  wiped  them  out. 

Again,  in  the  Armorican  Peninsula  there  is  a 
strongly  marked  contrast  between  the  Bretons  and 
the  other  French  peasants,  who  live  side  by  side. 
When  the  coast  people  are  compared  to  those  of  the 
interior,  the  differences  come  out  with  great  strength. 
This  is  hard  to  understand  until  one  remembers  that  in 
ancient  times  this  coast  was  invaded  and  ravaged  most 
fiercely  by  the  Saxon  pirates.     So  thoroughly  did  these 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  71 

Northern  barbarians  leave  their  impress  upon  the  in- 
habitants, that  even  to  this  day  the  Teutonic  com- 
plexion of  eyes  and  hair,  and  the  shape  of  head,  in 
other  words,  purely  somatic  traits,  still  persist.  In 
other  places,  types  persist  for  thousands  of  years,  in 
spite  of  mixing,  in  spite  of  conquest ;  so  that  in  the 
confusion  of  ages,  old-time  traits  are  continually  crop- 
ping up.  At  Dordogne,  in  the  Limousin  hills  of 
France,  a  distinct  type  of  man  occurs,  that  is  said  to 
be  a  remnant  of  the  very  ancient  Cro-Magnon  race.  It 
existed  in  prehistoric  times,  in  ages  when  the  inhabi- 
tants of  France  were  below  the  level  of  the  American 
Aborigines  at  the  landing  of  Columbus,  at  a  time  when 
the  climate  was  so  different  that  the  reindeer  roamed 
over  what  is  now  the  Valley  of  the  Rhone.  In  spite 
of  time,  conquest  and  occupation  of  the  country  by 
foreign  tribes,  by  the  Romans,  the  Saracens,  the  Teu- 
tons, this  race  has  in  part  persisted.  Like  outcropping 
strata  in  the  earth,  their  characteristics  have  from  time 
to  time,  and  in  various  places,  appeared  again  and 
again.  But  always,  one  should  remember,  have  these 
characteristics  belonged  to  the  category  called  somatic. 
The  acquired  traits  are  entirely  different,  and  are  not 
in  the  same  way  transmitted.  What  combinations 
have  resulted  from  all  these  admixtures,  surely  no 
one  can  tell. 

One  may  find  another  example  in  the  Jews.     Of  all      Z 
peoples,   they,   doubtless,   are   the   most    purely   bred. 


72  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

They  had  a  distinct  ethnic  existence  for  centuries 
before  the  ancestors  of  their  modern  neighbors  were 
redeemed  from  barbarism.  They  have  retained  for 
thousands  of  years  certain  well-known  features  of  face, 
form  and  mind,  that  give  them  an  undoubted  race- 
individuality.  But,  nevertheless,  they  bear  the  marks 
of  their  wanderings.  They  are  a  sort  of  living  record 
of  an  organic  process  which  has  come  down  from  the 
remote  past  to  the  present.  Every  people  among 
whom  they  lived  have  left  their  mark  upon  them.  The 
branches  that  lived  in  Russia  show  characteristics  that 
are  purely  Slav ;  in  others  there  are  traits  that  are 
clearly  Iberian ;  in  others  one  can  see  signs  that  point 
with  an  unwavering  finger  to  a  sojourn  among  Teu- 
tons ;  mixed  with  the  pure  Semitic  traits  are  features 
which  point  with  an  unerring  directness  to  a  widely 
foreign  element.  These  traits  are  heritages  from  all 
past  time,  modern  as  well  as  ancient.  Taken  together, 
they  make  a  curious  mixture.  But  the  one  exists  as 
well  as  the  other;  for  to-day,  in  the  streets  of  New 
York,  one  may  easily  recognize  skulls  and  lineaments 
that  are  as  clearly  ancient  Assyrian  as  one  can  possibly 
hope  to  find. 

In  the  same  way  that  bodily  characteristics  reappear 
for  generations  and  centuries  from  a  far  distant  source, 
so  traits  of  mind  and  character  are  similarly  cropping 
out.  Such  things  are  beyond  direct  control ;  they  are 
the   result   of  a   complicated   miscegenesis,   and   their 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  73 

existence  does  not  in  any  way  depend  upon  the  efforts 
or  the  acquired  characteristics  of  parents.  They  come 
from  very  many  origins,  and  their  occurrence,  as 
well  as  their  action  upon  one  another,  no  man  can 
predicate.  Moreover,  whenever  a  union  between  mem- 
bers of  different  races  occurs,  an  indefinite  number  of 
ancestral  traits  appear,  which  seem  to  be  set  free  by 
the  very  fact  of  cross-breeding.  This  effect  of  crossing 
is  well  known,  and  is  illustrated  by  such  classical 
examples  as  Darwin  furnished  :  the  mule,  the  offspring 
of  the  horse  and  the  ass,  frequently  is  born  with  stripes 
upon  the  legs.  This  feature  is  not  seen  in  either 
parent,  but  is  traced  back  to  a  remote  ancestor  of 
both,  which  was  a  zebra-like  animal.  Another  instance 
which  he  cites  is  the  case  of  domestic  pigeons,  the 
various  breeds  of  which  are  supposed  to  be  descended 
from  the  blue  rock-pigeon.  He  crossed  two  mongrel 
birds  whose  coloring  was  totally  unlike  that  of  the  rock, 
"  and  they  produced  a  bird  of  as  beautiful  a  blue  color, 
with  the  white  loins,  double  black  wing-bar,  and  barred 
and  white-edged  tail-feathers,  as  any  wild  rock-pigeon." 
Such  facts  in  regard  to  animals  do  not  strike  the 
general  reader  as  especially  wonderful.  He  has  be- 
come so  accustomed  to  hearing  startling  accounts  of 
heredity  in  the  breeding  of  animals,  that  nothing  aston- 
ishes him.  Apply  similar  reasoning  to  man,  and  the 
outcome  will  appear  to  be  and  is  beyond  all  com- 
putation.    For   every  child    may  show   all   manner   of 


74  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OP^  THE  CHILD 

reversions  ;  he  may  bear  the  mark  of  a  remote  ancestor 
who  lived  far  back  in  the  past,  or  he  may  embody  a 
mixture  of  characteristics  that  is  different  from  the 
component  elements  which  go  to  form  it.  This  is 
almost  certain  to  happen,  because  there  is  no  family 
that  has  for  a  sufficiently  long  time  been  absolutely 
able  to  control  all  the  various  unions  that  have  occurred 
in  its  line.  Most  of  all  is  this  true  because  no  person 
is  quite  of  one  type  in  all  his  physical  and  mental  com- 
position. One  would  think,  according  to  the  usual 
reasoning  concerning  inheritance  in  animals,  that  the 
most  strongly  marked  traits,  no  matter  what  they  were, 
would  most  surely  leave  deep  impresses  upon  descend- 
ants, that  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  parent,  of  any 
sort  at  all,  must  be  reproduced  in  the  child ;  but  this 
does  not  necessarily  follow.  On  the  contrary,  one  finds 
that  the  opposite  often  is  the  case.  Thus  one  rarely 
sees  the  son  of  a  great  musician  equal  his  father  in 
musical  ability,  or  the  son  of  a  great  lawyer  take  equal 
rank   with   him.     What   usually   happens   is   that   the 

\  hereditary  ability,  if  there  be  any,  shows  itself  in  the 
form   of  a  predisposition    or   a   tendency,    which,    on 

]  account  of  the  influence  of  the  father's  prestige,  is  apt 
to  be  magnified  beyond  its  real  worth.     Thus  one  sees, 

jj  more  and  more,  that  the  plain,  simple  rules  which 
govern  the  descent  of  animals  cannot  apply  to  that  of 
man.  Our  human  conditions  are  so  complex,  are  so 
clearly  the  result  of  an  artificial  arrangement  of  affairs, 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  75 

that  the  resulting  combination  of  things  is  quite  differ- 
ent from  what  it  would  be,  were  we  living  in  a  state 
of  nature.  The  laws,  customs  and  discipline  of  civili- 
zation, while  fitted  to  conserve  the  general  welfare  of 
society,  are  not  at  all  designed  to  carry  out  the  strin-  1 
gent  laws  of  heredity.  The  result  is,  that  by  the  com- 
bination of  unnumbered  ancestral  traits  and  present 
artificial  conditions  working  upon  each  other,  we  can 
be  sure  of  very  little  in  conclusions  regarding  heredity, 
and  must  be  satisfied  with  the  seemingly  indefinite  and 
dim  consensus  of  forces  which,  in  a  general  way,  we 
call  predisposition.  <v 

The  question  of  predisposition  is  a  quite  different  \ 
one  from  that  of  strict  heredity ;  for  here,  instead  of 
absolute  reproduction  of  form  or  disposition,  or  both, 
there  is  merely  such  a  moulding  force  at  work  upon 
the  child's  structure  that  the  influence  of  environment 
is  enough  to  turn  the  son  in  approximately  the  same 
direction  as  the  father  travelled.  For  reproduction, 
all  the  elements  in  question  must  be  represented  in 
the  parent's  germinal  cells.  There  is  almost  nothing 
to  prove  that  what  does  not  exist  in  these  cells  can 
possibly  be  transmitted.  For  instance,  moral  training  '"^ 
is  no  more  an  essential  part  of  these  germinal  cells 
than  good  manners,  nor  is  a  cultured  taste  more  cer- 
tain to  be  passed  on  to  the  next  generation  than  a  fine 
knowledge  of  the  flavor  of  tea.  The  most  that  can  be 
said  of  predisposition  is  that  certain  human  beings  are 


^6  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

SO  constituted  as  to  act  as  good  growing  grounds,  as 
good  culture  media,  for  a  certain  sort  of  impulse. 
And  when  outside  conditions  fall  in  such  a  way  that 
influences  favorable  to  the  growth  of  certain  states  of 
mind  or  body  exist,  the  characteristic  reaction  must 
result.  Thus  a  child  may  have  a  natural  inclination 
toward  morality  or  industry  or  light-heartedness ;  if 
the  proper  conditions  exist,  the  quality  in  question  will 
grow  in  commensurate  degree.  The  "  mute,  inglori- 
ous Miltons "  are  mute  and  inglorious  because  they 
have  the  predisposition  toward  poetic  conception  and 
expression,  but  in  other  requirements  are  not  suffi- 
ciently fortunate. 

In  a  somewhat  similar  way  people  are  known  to 
have  a  predisposition  to  certain  sicknesses,  say  tuber- 
culosis. Very  few  men  of  scientific  training  now  speak 
of  consumption  as  an  hereditary  disease.  Rather  they 
say  and  think  that  the  person  in  question  is  of  such 
a  constitution  that  he  very  easily,  under  proper  con- 
ditions, becomes  a  fertile  ground  upon  which  the  germ 
of  tuberculosis  may  grow.  In  this  way  an  increasing 
number  of  diseases  that  at  one  time  were  thought  to 
be  absolutely  hereditary  are  now  counted,  rightly 
enough,  as  either  cases  of  direct  infection  of  the 
child  by  a  definite  disease-germ  from  the  parent,  or 
merely  a  liability,  a  predisposition,  in  the  child  to  that 
sickness.  The  child  before  birth  may  in  this  way  be 
attacked    by    small-pox,    malaria,    measles,    scarlatina, 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  JJ 

Asiatic  cholera,  or  croupous  pneumonia ;  he  may  be 
born  with  any  one  of  them  ;  but  that  does  not  say 
that  they  are  hereditary  diseases.  All  that  one  may 
with  safety  state  is,  that  the  germ  has  reached  the 
unborn  infant,  and  finding  a  fertile  soil,  has  lived  and 
flourished  thereon.  This  is  quite  different  from  the 
idea  that  the  connection  between  parent  and  child 
necessitates  an  unvarying  transmission  of  an  acquired 
disease,  which,  so  long  as  it  once  exists,  must  run  a 
definite  course.  There  is  always,  in  addition,  the 
counter-fact  that  a  predisposition  of  any  kind  may 
be  more  or  less  successfully  combated.  A  fertile 
place  may,  as  every  one  knows,  be  rendered  less  fertile, 
and  also  may  be  made  sterile. 

There  are  many  cases  where  common  opinion  sup- 
poses a  congenital  condition  to  be  the  result  of  hered- 
ity, of  undoubted  transmission  from  parent  to  child 
of  a  condition  that  formerly  was  thought  to  be  beyond 
the  range  of  interference.  In  these  instances,  careful 
thought  cannot  possibly  agree  with  the  supposition. 
A  case  in  point  is  the  belief,  so  rigorously  held,  that 
epilepsy,  in  all  its  various  phases,  must  be  a  distinct 
disease  that  is  in  some  invariable  fashion  handed  on 
from  one  generation  to  another.  Some  years  since  a 
successful  attempt  to  produce  epilepsy  artificially  was 
made.  Obersteiner,  by  various  operations  and  mutila- 
tions of  the  nervous  system,  produced  an  epileptic 
condition  in  guinea  pigs  that  imitated  very  exactly  the 


78        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

symptoms  of  the  natural  disorder.  A  somewhat  simi- 
lar condition  consequently  showed  itself  in  the  direct 
offspring  of  these  animals.  Ordinarily  people  would 
say  that  the  disease  was  thus  proved  to  be  hereditary, 
that  the  parents  suffered  from  it,  and  in  due  time 
their  product  showed  like  symptoms.  On  less  of  a 
basis  than  this  many  serious  beliefs  have  rested ;  on 
even  a  slighter  basis  many  mothers  have  founded  a 
strong  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  accidental  impressions 
made  upon  a  child  before  his  birth.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  more  logical  explanation  would  lie  in  the  idea 
that  the  parents,  by  reason  of  their  serious  mutilations, 
came  to  have  weakened  and  irritable  nervous  systems, 
and  although  they  could  not  transmit  the  operations 
which  they  underwent,  nevertheless,  their  young,  as 
far  as  their  brains  and  nerves  are  concerned,  were 
feebly  endowed.  Various  sorts  of  nervous  irritability, 
among  which  were  epileptoid  manifestations,  inevi- 
tably resulted.  It  is  still  easier  to  understand  the 
occurrence,  which  is  often  a  coincidence,  of  the  so- 
called  maternal  impressions.  Many  mothers  during 
pregnancy  undergo  some  shock  or  nervous  strain. 
The  greater  this  is,  the  greater  is  the  likelihood  of 
interference  with  the  nutrition  of  the  infant,  not  as 
a  matter  of  direct  inheritance,  but  only  as  a  method 
of  lowering  the  mother's  vitality,  and  through  it,  the 
child's.  Whatever  mark  or  blemish  is  noticed  after 
birth  is  very  apt  to  be  referred  to  some  of  the  count- 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  79 

less  experiences  in  daily  life  to  which  it  bears  some 
real  or  fancied  resemblance.  So  many  of  these  experi- 
ences happen  in  the  ordinary  life  of  every  person 
that  there  is  no  lack  of  them  to  serve  as  cause  for 
whatever  misfortunes  that  may  occur.  No  notice  is 
taken  of  the  other  countless  accidents  of  all  sorts, 
the  vast  number  of  disagreeable  smells,  sights,  and 
sounds  that  assail  every  woman,  whether  pregnant 
or  not.  The  innate  desire  to  know  the  reason  of 
things  leads  people  on  past  the  bounds  of  reason  into 
the  field  of  conjecture.  This  was  finely  and  character- 
istically illustrated  in  a  case  that  came  under  my 
notice  a  short  time  ago.  A  child  was  born  with  a 
mark  on  the  back  which  in  a  general  way  represented 
the  shape  of  a  net.  The  mother  then  remembered 
that  about  four  months  previous  she  had  accidentally 
been  struck  with  a  tennis  ball,  and  lo !  there  was  the 
picture  of  a  tennis  net.  Examination  showed  the 
mark  to  be  merely  a  nsevus  of  an  irregular  and  broken 
contour. 

One  must  clearly  understand  that  heredity  in  its 
action  is  comprehensive,  far  reaching,  not  easily  moved. 
The  individual  is  not,  in  his  somatic  constitution,  easily 
affected,  excepting  in  a  theoretical  sense,  by  slight 
influences  of  an  extrinsic  nature.  Thinking  in  a  purely 
ideal  way,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  a  certain  part 
of  the  fertilized  ovum,  called  the  germ-plasm,  is  com- 
posed of  two  particles  of  similar  matter  derived  from 


8o       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

the  parents,  which  parts,  in  their  previous  turn,  had 
their  origin  from  the  grandparents,  and  so  on.  This 
germ-plasm  is  thus  properly,  so  long  as  the  race  exists, 
immortal ;  it  can  never  die  so  long  as  men  beget  and 
women  conceive ;  it  is  practically  unchangeable.  It  is 
accompanied  by  a  so-called  body-plasm  from  which  the 
body  develops.  This  is  the  part  that  changes  with  the 
passing  months,  that  comes  to  bear  the  mark  of  exter- 
nal influences.  The  distinction  between  these  two 
factors  is  a  plain  and  salient  one,  that  should,  by  all 
means,  be  clearly  appreciated.  The  germ-plasm  is  as 
old  as  man,  the  body-plasm  is  just  as  old  as  the  person 
to  whom  it  belongs.  The  one  may  be  called  his  real 
ancestral  part,  that  varies  merely  as  the  resultant  of 
the  two  lines  of  parentage  conjoined.  The  other  is  his 
physical  self,  the  sum  of  the  influences  of  nutrition. 
This  thing  called  nutrition  is  the  main  fact  of  interest 
to  those  who  believe  in  training.  It  is  the  only  part 
jin  man  that  is  susceptible  of  cultivation.  To  try  to 
I  cultivate  anything  else  is  much  the  same  as  trying  to 
civilize  a  remote  ancestor.  Thus  at  a  glance  one  can 
see  that  only  in  a  partial  way  is  development  hereditary. 
Where  somatic  characteristics  end,  there  heredity  be- 
gins. A  fairly  important  part  of  each  person  is  born 
in  a  certain  state  without  the  possibility  of  change, 
and  an  attempt  to  influence  it  would  be  about  as  fea- 
sible as  trying  to  bring  a  three-legged  man  into  exist- 
ence. 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  8 1 

When  one  resolves  the  ordinary  ideas  of  development 
into  their  last  factors,  one  sees  that  what  is  usually 
meant  by  heredity  is  something  quite  different,  is  what 
should  be  included  under  the  head  of  effects  of  nutri- 
tion. For  instance,  through  some  fault  in  nutrition, 
the  process  of  ossification  in  the  palate  bone  of  a  baby 
does  not  proceed  far  enough,  the  prenatal  condition 
remains  stationary,  and  a  cleft  palate  is  the  result.  Or, 
by  an  analogous  factor  in  the  nutrition  of  nerve  cells, 
the  developing  child  becomes  grave  or  gay,  brilliant  or 
stupid.  Or  a  father  has  fallen  a  victim  of  syphilis ; 
the  body-plasm  of  his  child  is  so  affected  that  it  shows 
the  mark  of  the  disease.  Here  again  the  result  is  one 
of  nutrition,  and  proper  attention  to  the  environment 
can  change  the  condition  to  something  quite  different. 
Here,  then,  is  one  of  the  most  important  facts  in  human 
life :  the  effect  and  the  value  of  environment.  This  is 
the  fact  which  does  more  than  anything  else  to  make 
people  as  we  see  them.  As  a  matter  of  essential  con- 
struction, men  are  all  very  much  alike,  for  since  they 
must  have  had  the  same  evolution,  they  differ  from 
each  other  mostly  in  the  results  of  nutrition,  of  environ- 
ment. Germ-plasm  is  so  little  susceptible  of  change, 
is  so  rigid  in  its  constitution  and  disposition,  and  has 
been  so  thoroughly  subjected  to  inter-breeding  and 
cross-breeding,  that  to  mark  off  one  man  from  another 
is  wellnigh  impossible. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  medium  in  which  a  child  is 

G 


82       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

conceived,  born,  and  nourished,  is  of  the  most  telling 
value.  His  body  and  mind  are  predestined  to  certain 
conditions,  not  so  much  because  he  is  descended  from 
this  line  or  that,  as  because  certain  obstacles  retard 
him,  or  certain  means  of  help  carry  him  forward. 
These  obstacles  and  helps  are  of  no  one  particular 
sort;  they  are  spread  over  the  whole  sum  of  human 
experience.  They  begin  long  before  the  child  is  born, 
they  continue  actively  in  force  until  maturity,  they  then 
gradually  decrease  in  a  vanishing  ratio.     Conventional 

f\  opinion  says  that  a  child  is  well  born  if  his  family  has 
won  a  greater  measure  of  applause  than  disfavor,  if  he 
has  a  body  that  is  fairly  regular  in  its  parts,  if  his 
moral  nature  is  of  a  sufficiently  normal  type  to  rebel 
at  flagrant  offences  against  morality  and  the  public 
interest,  as  usually  understood,  and  if  his  intellectual 
powers  are  sufficient  to  permit  his  making  himself 
understood,  and  enable  him  to  support  himself.  Now, 
for  almost  all  of  these  factors  he  is  not  responsible, 
nor  are  they  necessarily  qualities  which  his  parents 
possessed,  or  are  capable  of  transmitting.     He  comes 

\_^  into  the  world  as  a  mass  of  potentialities,  for  months 
he  is  the  most  neutral  of  creatures,  whose  functions 
are  largely  reflex  and  automatic,  whose  mental  vigor 
is  really  nil.  Little  by  little  he  gathers  strength,  the 
parts  of  his  body  gradually  spread  out  in  the  irregu- 
lar ways  of  rapid  growth.  Measured  by  the  standard 
of  normal  maturity,  every  piece  of  him  is  out  of  meas- 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  83 

ure,  is  provisional,  almost  pathological.  His  whole  con- 
stitution is  temporary,  and  cannot  even  be  regarded 
as  the  foundation  of  what  he  eventually  will  be.  He 
is  so  plastic  that  his  daily  surroundings  mould  him 
as  surely  as  a  warm  hand  shapes  a  piece  of  wax. 
With  added  growth  he  approaches  very  slowly  to  the 
ordinary  level ;  but  all  his  movements  of  mind  and 
body  are  marked  by  the  clumsiness,  the  wavering 
uncertainty  of  an  unprepared  state.  His  weakness 
cries  aloud  for  affection  and  care.  The  answer  ought 
to  be  given  in  the  fullest  protection,  the  absolute 
shielding  from  every  sort  of  strain,  mental,  moral,  and 
physical.  He  is  in  no  condition  to  bear  burdens,  it 
is  hard  enough  for  him  to  find  out  that  there  are 
such  things.  His  principal  work  should  lie  in  being 
formed,  in  getting  a  straight  back,  big  lungs,  and  a 
clear  mind ;  in  possessing  a  nervous  constitution  which, 
as  one  of  its  functions,  is  capable  of  elaborating  a  moral 
sense  that  points  straight.  For  such  things  are  guar- 
anteed by  nature  to  no  one.  Moreover,  the  child  is 
so  easily  influenced,  and  the  number  of  controlling 
factors  about  him  is  so  large,  that  unless  there  is  a 
fixed  and  constant  plan  of  action,  which  is  designed 
to  fashion  him  in  a  certain  manner,  his  final  condi- 
tion will  be  settled  by  a  ragged  combination  of  chance 
influences.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  not  at  all 
wonderful  that  anomalous  differences  between  parents 
and  children  commonly  exist. 


84  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

The  problem  is  finally  one  of  nutrition  in  the  broad- 
est sense.  Whatever  makes  for  the  fullest  develop- 
ment of  cells  is  properly  included  in  this  term.  Food, 
rest,  tissue  change,  stimulation  and  over-stimulation 
are  all  merely  parts.  As  the  previous  chapters  and  the 
plates  facing  pages  55  and  56  clearly  show,  the  child  is  in 
practically  every  respect  different  from  the  adult,  and 
every  part  of  him  is  constantly  changing.  The  only 
conclusion  which  one  may  draw  from  these  facts  is 
that  his  environment  ought  to  be  designed  to  further 
,'  the  proper  growth,  that  his  needs  are  different  from 
';  those  of  his  matured  relatives,  that  disturbances  of 
j  mind  and  body  occur  in  him  with  the  greatest  readi- 
\  ness,  and  may  produce  immovable  harm.  These 
disturbances  are  generally  due  to  the  environment ; 
faulty  food,  faulty  methods  of  rest,  faulty  ideas  of 
excitement,  are  some  of  the  causes  involved.  And, 
considering  the  importance  of  the  matter,  it  is  really 
wonderful  that  greater  attention  has  not  been  paid 
to  it.  A  man  who  without  a  proper  training  at- 
tempts the  conduct  of  a  suit  at  law  would  draw 
down  ridicule  upon  himself ;  he  who  without  a  suffi- 
cient course  of  instruction  prescribes  for  the  sick  is 
punished  by  fine  or  imprisonment ;  even  the  most 
ordinary  workman  needs  an  acquaintance  with  the 
nature  of  his  work,  before  an  employer  will  put  a 
task  in  his  hands.  But  for  the  right  care  of  children 
no  training  in  the  mothers,  nurses,  or  teachers  is  con- 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  S$ 

sidered  essential.  One  of  the  natural  results  is  that 
the  standard  exacted  among  such  persons,  instead  of 
being  very  high,  is  very  low.  With  them  the  main 
test  of  whether  a  child  is  being  properly  fed  is  that 
he  does  not  die,  the  test  of  whether  he  is  properly 
clad  is  that  he  does  not  freeze,  the  test  of  whether  he 
is  properly  taught  is  that  he  sit  quietly  in  school,  and 
pass  a  sufficient  number  of  examinations.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  would,  doubtless,  be  better  in  many  cases  that 
he  should  die,  or  starve,  or  remain  "  uninstructed." 

The  period    of    childhood    involves,   proportionally,  — {^ 
more  work,    excitement    and    strain,   than   any   other  y 
part   of  life.     The  little   one   has   to   eat   all    manner      >, 
of  strange  foods,  to  learn  the  meaning  of  all  sorts  of  V* 

strange  things,  to  conform  to  all  kinds  of  rules  of 
conduct  that  are  clearly  artificial,  the  use  of  which 
he  cannot  understand.  One  can  easily  understand 
the  difficulties  of  becoming  accustomed  to  such  re- 
quirements, when  one  knows  that  each  of  these  items 
is  of  prime  importance.  Various  articles  of  food  differ 
very  much  from  each  other,  and  in  their  final  use 
serve  diverse  ends.  A  child  that  is  growing  and 
learning  some  new  fact  of  experience  every  hour, 
whose  delicate  nerve  cells  are  not  able  to  bear  any 
great  stress,  needs  an  exact  and  wise  attention  to 
his  dietary,  much  more  so  than,  for  instance,  his 
father.  The  latter  can,  with  benefit,  live  upon  a 
mixed    diet,   and   whether   he   consumes   a   somewhat 


86  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

smaller  or  larger  percentage  of  proteids  or  of  carbo- 
hydrates, is  a  matter  of  comparatively  little  impor- 
tance. His  organism  merely  seeks  to  repair  waste. 
But  in  the  child  the  main  object  is  an  added  one,  the 
element  of  unimpaired  growth.  Every  ounce  of  as- 
similated nourishment  counts,  every  small  bit  of 
waste  energy  has  its  telling  effect.  And  in  the  mat- 
ter of  growth,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  each 
element  in  the  body  calls  for  its  particular  sort  of 
nutriment.  Brain  cells  require  proteid  matter,  bone 
tissue  requires  certain  mineral  salts.  A  dietary  rich 
in  starch  (as  in  many  vegetables  and  cereals)  would 
serve  neither  one  of  these  tissues.  The  distinctions 
between  foods  may  be  even  more  finely  drawn.  The 
curd  of  cow's  milk  is  hard  of  digestion,  much  more 
so  than  that  of  some  other  mammals,  A  child  with  a 
delicate  organism  that  requires  a  milk  food  might 
starve  on  cow's  milk,  even  though  its  quality,  />er  se, 
be  very  good.  Or  even  if  he  lived,  he  might  be  poorly 
nourished,  and  show  the  effects  in  a  locally  or  generally 
weakened  body,  or  in  a  dull  or  abnormal  mind. 

As  he  grows,  his  life  experiences,  in  the  ordinary 
family,  broaden,  far  more  rapidly  than  his  develop- 
ment matures.  The  need  for  nourishment,  for  the 
right  apportionment  of  the  various  elements  of  food, 
increases  progressively.  And  in  like  measure,  the 
danger  of  partial  tissue-poverty  increases.  The  faculty 
of    emotional    excitation   is   almost   always   neglected. 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  8/ 

There  is  no  general  idea  of  the  necessity  of  regulating 
such    impulses    to    the    end    of    conserving    energy. 
Fear,  sorrow,  joy,  shame  and  love,  in  improper  meas-  1 
ure,  are  broad  avenues  of  waste.     When  he  goes   to    ' 
school  his  work  is  enormously  increased ;   school  au- 
thorities seem   to    think    that    their    duties    are    best  ^ 
interpreted    by  putting    upon    children    the    heaviest  j 
instead   of  the  lightest  possible  burdens.     In   fact,  I } 
know  of  no  harder  experience,  no  more  trying  ordeals, 
than  what  a  child  at  this   time   undergoes.     His   ex- 
periences in  the  school  environment  are  finely  designed 
to  encourage  irritation  and  waste  of  nerve  and  muscle 
tissue ;  the  circumstances  of  instruction  are  useful  for  j 
deadening  instead  of  encouraging  a  normal  standard 
of   intellectual   development.     And   it   is   just   at   this 
time  that  the  diet  receives  the  least  attention.     One 
would  think  that  under  such  conditions  an  incentive 
for  insisting  upon  the  most  wisely  selected  food  exists 
much  more  than  at  any  other  time,  but,  unfortunately, 
such  is  not  the  case.     The  evil  is  general,  and  is   as 
prevalent    among   the    rich    as    among    the    poor,   for 
there  is  no  one  class  that  has  a  monopoly  of  miscon- 
ceptions.    In  the  one,  the  fault  lies  in  poorly  selected 
sorts  of  food,  in  the  other  in  deficient  quantity  and 
quality. 

The  ordinary  home  life  of  an  infant  is  just  as  trying 
as  his  poorly  adapted  food.  Even  in  his  earliest  days 
relatives  and  friends  show  a  remarkable   ignorance  of 


88  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

his  needs.  His  natural  condition  is  one  of  perfect 
ignorance.  His  first  acquaintance  with  life  is  a  series 
of  shocks.  He  is  rudely  exposed  to  heat  and  cold,  he 
is  too  carelessly  handled  and  tossed  about,  and  under 
the  plea  of  amusing  him,  various  sorts  of  disagreeable 
noises  are  made,  and  "equally  disagreeable  sights  are 
forced  on  his  attention.  The  grimaces  which  those  in 
charge  of  him  make,  with  the  laudable  intention  of 
pleasing,  are  alone  sufficient  to  frighten  him.  And 
immediately  he  is  put  under  the  strain  of  acquiring  too 
much  information.  Every  circumstance  of  his  life,  in 
the  attempt  to  know  and  recognize  it,  requires  an  effort 
of  the  mind.  This  happens  when  the  brain  is  only 
partly  formed,  is  very  weak,  is  fit  only  to  vegetate  and 
gather  strength.  During  the  years  of  its  immaturity, 
because  both  physically  and  physiologically  its  constitu- 
tion is  not  capable  of  much  resistance,  it  becomes  tired 
very  easily.  The  ordinary  efforts  to  become  acquainted 
with  life,  to  understand  the  seemingly  involved  mean- 
ing of  everyday  events,  to  accustom  the  senses  to  a 
useful  appreciation  of  so-called  realities,  and  to  conform 
in  all  external  ways  to  the  requirements  of  civilized 
life,  are  unquestionably  most  trying.  These  efforts  are 
continuous ;  there  is  no  opportunity  for  intermission 
and  rest ;  and  therefore,  the  resulting  strain  is  all  the 
greater.  For  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  nerve  cells 
in  young  animals  easily  become  exhausted,  and  most 
rapidly  of  all  where   the  stimulus   is   long   continued. 


HEREDITY  AND   ENVIRONMENT  89 

The  most  ordinary  tests  show  this.     Take  a  very  young 
animal,  say  a  dog,  put  him  through  exercises  that  re- 
quire  as   much   concentration   of  attention   for  a  few 
hours  as  he  can  give,  and  a  microscopical  examination 
of  his   nerve   cells  will   show  a  tired,  exhausted    and 
worn-out  condition.     The  limits  of  normal  fatigue  are 
easily  overstepped   in   any  young  animal,  and   under 
such  circumstances,  the  resulting  over-fatigue  must  be 
regarded   as   permanent   deterioration.     Or,   subject   a ;  ^^^   "^ 
child  to  any  keen  impulse  of  excitement,  such  as  chil-  j       ^- 
dren  are  allowed  regularly  to  experience.     Immediately  j 
such  fatigue  ensues  that   his  ordinary  capabilities   act  i 
with  less  promptness  and  efficiency.     He  distinguishes 
color  less  easily,  his  skin  is  less  sensitive,  his  digestion 
is  less  capable  and  his  excretory  glands  are  less  active. 
This  does  not  take  into  account  extreme  cases  of  shock 
or  terror,  but  merely  such  ordinary  efforts  as  all  chil- 
dren are  apt  to  undergo. 

Repeated  impressions  on  the  brain  tend  to  create  a    — 
permanent   condition ;    the  wear   and   tear   which   the 
ordinary  child  undergoes  is  greater  than  people  usually 
estimate.     The  mental  condition  resulting  is,  thus,  far 
different  from  what   the   normal  adult  possesses.      It  / 
works  less  clearly,  less  logically  and  at  a  much  greater  ! 
expense.     All  in  all,  it  goes  to  form  in  part  the  child's 
environment,  which  thus  becomes  proportionally  health- 
ful or  unhealthful.     By  such  factors  the  child  is  affected 
throughout  his  whole  life,  even  as  far  as  the  difference 


90  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

between  a  small  and  a  greater  power  of  resistance  to 
disease,  or  the  difference  between  an  irritable  or  an 
equable  nervous  system,  or  even  the  difference  between 
wrong  and  right  action.  Very  commonly  an  impression 
upon  the  child  is  made  in  the  way  of  deviations  from 
normal  standards  that  make  life  unnecessarily  burden- 
some. And  all  these  things,  as  well  as  countless  others, 
can  often  be  traced  to  the  various  forms  of  nutritional 
poverty. 

To  the  same  cause  one  can  likewise  trace  much  of 
the  unhappiness  of  children's  lives,  much  of  their  wil- 
fulness, much  of  their  viciousness.  There  are  some 
common  cases  of  this  sort  with  which  every  one  is 
familiar;  when  a  baby  is  restless  and  cross,  incapable 
of  having  a  quiet  night,  the  cause  is  usually  to  be  found 
in  his  manner  of  life,  as  constituted  by  food,  rest  and 
other  similar  factors.  An  excess  of  starch  in  his  food 
may  upturn  a  household.  Or  an  older  child  may  be 
unhappy,  poorly  nourished,  or  even  vicious.  A  de- 
crease of  oxygen  and  an  increase  of  carbonic  dioxide 
in  the  air  which  the  child  breathes  makes  a  decided 
difference  in  the  elimination  of  waste  materials ;  such 
matter,  when  stored  up,  may  produce  varying  degrees 
of  intoxication,  of  poisoning.  And  as  a  result,  his 
ordinary  characteristics  are  for  the  time  changed. 
With  sufficient  repetition,  the  temporary  condition 
may  become  more  permanent.  Such  changes  are  all 
the  easier,  on  account  of  the  profoundly  mixed  charac- 


HEREDITY  AND  ENVIRONMENT  9I 

ter  of  hereditary  dispositions.  A  bias  in  one  direction 
or  another  may  be  easily  exaggerated  into  what  seems 
a  trait  of  profound  importance.  At  the  same  time, 
really  intelligent  care  could  bring  about  quite  a  dif-  « 
ferent  result.  Ordinary  casual  judgment  would  define 
such  a  child  as  more  or  less  vicious,  would  point  to  any 
traits  in  the  direct  ancestry  as  the  determining  cause, 
and  would  congratulate  itself  on  the  advantages  of 
scientific  knowledge. 

The  gist  of  the  matter  is  that  usually  too  much  blind 
reliance  is  placed  on  the  commonly  accepted  ideas  of 
heredity.  People  regularly  think  of  the  problem  as  a 
simple  combination  of  known  elements,  instead  of  a 
complex  process  of  both  combination  and  inter-reaction 
of  a  great  number  of  factors.  Moreover,  the  true  scope 
of  heredity  is  not  so  great  as  they  believe ;  and  what 
is  unquestionably  transmissible  occurs  in  such  a  form 
as  usually  to  constitute  a  predisposition  of  one  kind  or  - 
another.  The  constant,  countless  influences  of  environ- 
ment come  in  to  decide  upon  the  child's  development. 
These  influences  have,  as  their  main  opponent,  the 
theoretical  intentions  and  academic  ideas  of  parents 
and  guardians ;  but  the  opposition  usually  amounts  to 
little.  On  the  other  hand,  the  effect  of  environment 
is  not  to  be  overestimated ;  it  acts  every  hour  of  the 
day,  leaving  impressions  which,  although  rarely  handed 
down  to  the  next  generation,  are  permanent  with  the.' 
individual.     Parents  control  the  bodies  and  minds,  the 


92     '   THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

hearts  and  souls  of  their  children  not  so  much  by  what 
their  ancestors  were  as  by  what  they  themselves  do  and 
think.  The  results  are  just  as  sure  as  earlier  writers, 
reckoning  on  other  standards,  estimated ;  but  the 
method  of  producing  the  results,  and  the  results  them- 
selves, are  quite  different.  The  direct  responsibility  of 
parents  is  very  great,  for  there  exists  the  relation  of 
an  active  cause  and  an  immediate  effect.  Instead  of 
I  saying  "  Like  father,  like  son,"  one  rather  should  say, 
j  "  As  the  father  lives,  so  lives  the  son."  The  cases  of 
worthy  fathers  having  unworthy  sons  are  usually  those 
where  the  parents  evoke  esteem  for  certain  laudable 
traits,  but  at  the  same  time  all  the  necessary  conditions 
for  the  full  development  of  the  children's  characters 
are  not  thoroughly  conserved.  A  man  may  be  a  brill- 
iant mathematician,  or  a  profound  philosopher,  without 
necessarily  showing  a  fitting  appreciation  of  the  physi- 
cal and  mental  needs  of  his  family.  Proficiency  in  one 
direction  does  not  necessarily  imply  an  equal  proficiency 
in  others,  and  a  bankrupt  in  business  may  be  a  brilliant 
success  in  rearing  offspring.  All  in  all,  the  general 
rule  of  the  certainty  of  good  results  following  careful 
and  anxious  effort  holds  good  in  the  development  of 
children  just  as  well  as  in  all  other  matters.  The 
1  trustworthiness  of  children  depends  upon  the  elements 

;  of  environment,  acting   upon  certain  inherited  condi- 

i 

I  tions  which    go    to   create    the   qualities   of    thinking 
'  clearly  and   seeing  straight. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Place  of  the  Primary  School  in  the  Devel- 
opment OF  the  Child 

No  subject  concerns  the  interests  or  the  sympathies 
of  the  community  more  closely  than  that  of  the  educa- 
tion of  children.  The  matter  is  so  near  to  the  general 
welfare  that  every  possible  method  of  interference  or 
of  development  receives  a  warm  reception.  From  the 
well-known  year  171 7,  when  Frederick  William  I.  of 
Prussia  promulgated  his  edict  of  compulsory  education, 
the  public  attention  has  inclined  more  and  more  toward 
the  view  that  right  education  of  children  is  the  basis  of 
natural  advancement.  From  that  time,  when  teaching 
was  the  harbor  of  the  unsuccessful,  the  incompetent 
and  the  helpless,  up  to  the  present,  when  its  value  to 
the  community  is  extolled  and  praised,  is  a  far  cry. 
In  correspondence  to  the  amount  of  skilled  thought 
devoted  to  the  matter,  the  civilization  of  the  world  has 
progressed.  Such  men  as  Socrates,  Aristotle,  Erasmus, 
Bacon,  Comenius,  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  have  done 
more  than  hold  schools  or  formulate  a  philosophy ;  they 
have  helped  the  civilization  and  culture  of  the  world 
along  by  giant  strides. 

93 


94       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

In  the  course  of  the  development  in  teaching,  the 
objects  to  be  obtained  have  been  fairly  permanent ;  but 
the  methods  have  gradually  changed.  All  along  the  line 
the  first  efforts  were  in  the  way  of  teaching  the  means 
of  communication  and  computation ;  upon  these,  as  a 
foundation,  were  based  the  higher  branches.  In  early 
times  there  seemed  to  be  little  or  no  problem  in  regard 
to  teaching.  It  was  required  that  the  teacher  should 
merely  know  as  much  of  the  subject  in  hand  as  he 
expected  the  scholar  should  learn ;  whether  he  was  to 
teach  arithmetic  to  children,  youths,  or  adults  seemed  of 
little  difference.  On  the  contrary,  the  main  idea  was 
that  a  certain  number  of  facts  was  to  be  drilled  into  a 
scholar  or  a  number  of  scholars.  It  was  thought  that 
any  one  who  knew  these  facts  could,  just  as  well  as  any 
other  person,  impart  the  knowledge,  in  much  the  same 
way  that  one  woman  shows  another  how  to  cook,  or  a 
blacksmith  teaches  an  apprentice  to  shape  a  horseshoe. 
That  there  is  a  further  element  in  teaching  than  that 
of  simple  demonstration  is  a  very  modern  conception. 
And  it  is  only  of  very  recent  years  that  even  a  fairly 
correct  idea  of  the  difficulty  of  educating  young  chil- 
dren has  been  generally  felt.  And  even  now,  although 
j  some  teachers  and  psychologists  are  dissatisfied  with 
the  older  methods  of  instruction,  especially  in  the  prim- 
ary schools,  the  large  body  of  citizens  and  parents  are 
only  dimly  conscious  of  the  glaring  deficiencies  that  are 
impeding  the  development  of  their  children. 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  95 

To  a  certain  extent  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  most 
parents  at  bottom  regard  a  kindergarten  or  primary 
school  as  a  good  place  in  which  to  put  their  children, 
in  order  to  be  free  for  a  few  hours  every  day  of  the 
care  of  them.  The  children  thereby  have  a  means  of 
using  up  surplus  energy,  as  well  as  acquiring  some 
discipline.  But  after  all,  the  main  object  in  most  fami- 
lies is  freedom  from  care.  This  has  been  so  keenly 
felt  that  a  certain  successful  school  in  New  York  pre- 
scribes methods  of  play  and  occupation  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  day,  so  that  the  smallest  possible  amount 
of  responsibility  for  the  proper  use  of  the  little  ones'  ] 
time  rests  upon  the  parents.  The  reason  for  this  was 
stated  to  be  the  substitution  of  a  fairly  wise  plan  of 
play  and  work,  in  place  of  the  lack  of  judicious  super- 
vision under  which  the  majority  of  children  labor. 
The  one  advantage  in  this  state  of  things  is  that  par- 
ents, when  brought  face  to  face  with  the  problem, 
are  apt  to  concede  their  inability  or  unwillingness  to 
assume  the  proper  direction  over  their  children,  and 
so,  when  the  opportunity  presents,  are  all  the  more 
ready  to  hand  them  over  to  more  competent  care. 
Naturally  it  is  unfortunate  that  such  a  condition  exists, 
especially  as  there  is  no  inherent  necessity  for  it,  ex- 
cepting the  fact  that  parents  and  guardians  are  igno- 
rant of  where  their  children's  interest  lies,  and,  as  a  | 
rule,  have  no  more  definite  guide  by  which  to  direct  J 
their  efforts  than  their  natural  affection. 


96       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Nevertheless,  this  spontaneous  love,  although  gen- 
erally diffused,  has  been  at  the  basis  of  some  of  the 
greatest  advances  in  pedagogics.  This  was  the  force 
which  actuated  Pestalozzi  and  his  pupil  Froebel.  Pes- 
talozzi  in  particular  lacked  careful  preparation  and  care- 
ful training,  and  took  up  teaching  only  after  having 
failed  in  attempts  to  make  a  career  in  other  pursuits. 
He  felt  a  wonderful  sympathy  for  child-life  ;  his  love 
and  tenderness  were  unbounded,  and  by  them  he  held 
his  little  ones  under  the  strongest  control.  "I  was 
persuaded,"  he  wrote,  "  that  my  affection  would  change 
the  state  of  my  children  just  as  quickly  as  the  spring 
sun  would  awake  to  new  life  the  earth  that  winter  had 
benumbed."  He  clearly  recognized  that  children  need 
something  more  than  mere  restraint  and  government, 
and  what  he  lacked  in  scientific  knowledge  he  made  up 
in  sympathetic  art.  "  I  know  no  other  order,  method, 
or  art,"  he  wrote,  "but  that  which  resulted  naturally 
from  my  children's  conviction  of  my  love  for  them, 
nor  did  I  care  to  know  any  other."  So  long  as  he  was 
alone,  this  affection  was  sufficient  to  guide  him  aright 
in  his  methods  of  care  and  development,  even  though 
his  equipment  was  meagre.  But  such  a  faculty  is  hard 
to  transfer,  and  so  his  assistants  —  as  one  would  expect 
—  could  not  duplicate  his  success.  When,  in  speaking 
of  his  school  at  Yverdun,  he  said,  "the  whole  is  per- 
vaded by  the  great  spirit  of  home  union ;  a  pure 
fatherly  and  brotherly  spirit  rules  all,"  he  outlined  a 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  97 

condition  that  resulted  from  a  particular  agency,  which 
could  be  reproduced  only  by  a  similarly  gifted  person. 
Thus  it  occurred  under  the  guidance  of  Froebel,  who, 
starting  out  as  an  apprentice  in  forestry,  which  he 
deserted  for  one  pursuit  after  another,  finally  became 
a  teacher  at  Frankfort,  where  his  success  was  marked. 
So  enthusiastic  did  he  become,  that  he  decided  to 
spend  two  years  with  Pestalozzi  at  Yverdun.  Later 
on  he  established  a  school  at  Keilhau,  where  he  began 
to  formulate  the  ideas  that  resulted  in  the  kindergarten. 
The  advance  which  this  institution  marked  was  a 
most  noteworthy  one.  It  substituted  for  an  unintelli- 
gent rote-method,  a  warm,  kindly  spirit  of  help,  of 
allowing  the  budding  faculties  to  grow  with  a  bear- 
able amount  of  freedom ;  it  helped  the  child  to  bloom. 
In  fact,  the  likeness  of  a  child  to  a  plant  these  two 
pioneers  in  education  dwelt  upon  time  and  time  again. 
They  delighted  in  advising  their  audience  of  the 
necessity  of  carefully  shielding  these  delicate  shoots, 
of  carefully  watering  and  nourishing  them,  of  sedu- 
lously freeing  them  from  fatiguing  conditions.  Con- 
sidered in  the  light  of  a  new  departure,  the  work  was 
a  wonderful  one,  marking,  as  it  did,  a  revolution  in 
accepted  ideas.  And  if  it  had  afterwards  developed 
with  one-half  of  the  original  force  which  the  first 
leaders  threw  into  it,  there  would  now  be  no  need  to 
point  with  disfavor  to  the  methods  that  pretend  to 
guide  our  children's  mental  growth. 


98        THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

One  of  the  most  serious  limitations  of  Froebel  and 
his  school  was  the  fact  that  they  had  little  of  a  scien- 
tific foundation  upon  which  to  base  their  generaliza- 
tions. Their  conclusions  in  method  rested  upon  a 
foundation  of  keen  observation,  of  love,  of  fellowship 
and  sympathy.  But  they  knew  very  little  of  the 
reasons,  outside  of  metaphysical  considerations,  for 
their  courses  of  work ;  nor  were  they  prepared  to 
elaborate  these  courses  to  their  fullest  utility  and  sim- 
plicity. In  *  addition,  there  was  a  certain  amount  of 
lazy  thought,  of  mysticism,  in  their  belief  that  is 
almost  inevitable  in  a  new  movement  that  evokes  en- 
thusiasm. Thus,  when  Froebel  speaks  of  a  young 
child's  knowledge  of  number  as  "an  essential  need  of 
his  inner  nature,  a  certain  yearning  of  his  spirit,"  one 
can  see  at  a  glance  that  the  enthusiasm  of  conviction 
blinded  his  clearness  of  sight.  Again,  in  speaking  of 
his  third  "  gift "  (a  two-inch  wooden  cube),  he  says 
that  "this  gift  includes  in  itself  more  outward  mani- 
foldness,  and,  at  the  same  time,  makes  the  inward 
manifoldness  yet  more  perceptible  and  manifest."  This 
interpretation  in  all  its  symbolical  amplitude  might 
possibly  suggest  itself  to  a  metaphysician  who  was 
pondering  upon  emblematic  relations  ;  but  it  would  be 
as  far  from  the  elementary  workings  of  a  child's 
mind  as  a  conception  of  the  binomial  theorem  or  an 
appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  the  calculus.  Many 
of  his  best  known  disciples  go  to  even  greater  lengths 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  99 

and  construct  a  system  of  esoteric  interpretations  that 
can  be  equalled  only  by  some  mystic  cult.  Thus  W. 
N,  Hailman,  in  discussing  the  true  inwardness  of  a 
wooden  cylinder  (second  gift),  says :  "  On  revolving  the 
cylinder  on  an  axis  parallel  to  the  circular  faces,  we 
find  that  it  incloses  a  solid,  opaque  sphere ;  teaching 
us  the  lesson,  not  only  that  each  member  of  the  sec- 
ond gift  contains  each  and  all  of  the  others,  but  that 
whatever  is  in  the  universe  is  in  every  individual  part 
of  it ;  that  even  the  meanest  holds  the  elements  of 
the  noblest ;  that  the  highest  life  is  even  in  what  in 
short-sighted  conceit  we  call  death."  This  may  be 
very  fine  as  abstract  thought,  but  considered  in  its 
relation  to  the  rudimentary  mental  action  of  a  child, 
it  soars  far  above  the  earth. 

Examples  of  this  tendency  can  be  multiplied  indefi- 
nitely, and  force  one  to  the  belief  that  the  authors  of 
them  have  set  up  an  ideal  or  academic  figment  of  child- 
life,  a  sort  of  glorified  child-worship.  In  the  same 
category  must  one  include  the  deep  interpretations 
which  they  give  to  many  of  the  purposeless  acts  which 
are  perfectly  natural  to  infants  and  young  children. 
When  a  baby  pounds  on  a  tin  pan  with  a  spoon  or 
his  fist,  they  see  intelligent  attempts  at  ascertaining 
characteristic  qualities  and  reactions.  When  purely 
by  chance  he  makes  some  combination  of  color,  they 
point  with  wondering  exclamations  to  ancestral  habits 
showing  themselves  in  dawning  abilities.     When,  with 


ICXD  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

the  profound  lack  of  motor  coordination,  which  must 
inevitably  be  present  in  young  creatures,  he  casually 
scratches  some  meaningless  lines,  they  treasure  up  the 
scrawl  and  seek  in  it  for  indications  of  primeval  occu- 
pations and  habits.  The  whole  mass  of  work  is  over- 
laid with  the  marks  of  misconception,  of  false  ideas, 
of  false  development  and  growth.  Even  so  wise  a 
man,  so  conservative  a  thinker,  so  cautious  a  scientist 
as  Herbert  Spencer,  seems  to  be  ignorant  of  a  baby's 
powers,  when  he  advises  that  "we  should  provide  for 
the  infant  a  sufficiency  of  objects  presenting  different 
degrees  and  kinds  of  resistance,  a  sufficiency  of  objects 
reflecting  different  amounts  and  qualities  of  light,  and 
a  sufficiency  of  sounds  contrasted  in  their  loudness, 
their  pitch,  and  their  timbre."  All  this  would  be  well 
enough,  if  the  infant  in  arms  had  the  proper  physio- 
logical apparatus  for  carefully  discriminating  the  various 
degrees  of  resistance,  of  light,  of  sound ;  or,  having 
this  apparatus,  if  he  had  the  proper  development  of 
brain  substance  to  estimate  and  use  the  results  which 
the  working  of  the  apparatus  obtained.  But  all  this 
is  far  from  fact. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the  ordinary  infant  is 
an  exceedingly  immature  animal ;  that  he  is  not  only 
small  and  weak,  but  also  he  is  unripe,  he  is  undevel- 
oped, his  muscles  and  brain  structure  are  imperfect, 
his  power  of  coordination  is  very  weak,  and  his  sense 
perceptions  are  exceedingly  limited.     As  he  grows,  his 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY   SCHOOL  1 01 

various  faculties  grow  unevenly,  slowly,  by  fits  and 
starts.  One  may  put  various  colors  before  him,  but  for 
a  long  time  he  is  unable  to  discriminate  between  them  ; 
one  may  make  various  sounds,  but  he  cannot  distin- 
guish what  they  are,  nor  in  many  cases  hear  them. 
One  may  give  him  opportunities  to  develop  his  sense  of 
touch,  weight  and  temperature,  but  at  the  same  time 
one  ought  to  know  that  one's  efforts  are  as  surely 
wasted  as  attempts  to  cultivate  a  sand  heap.  This 
quality  of  sandy  absorption  —  or,  stated  otherwise, 
impermeability  to  influences  —  is  seen  in  much  greater 
degree  than  most  people,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
their  conceptions  of  infants  are  scarcely  objective,  are 
pre-formed,  are  able  or  willing  to  recognize.  They 
have  their  minds  made  up  as  to  what  a  young  child 
ought  to  be,  or  at  least  what  they  think  he  ought  to  be. 
And  it  is  with  difficulty  that  they  accustom  themselves 
to  other  ideas.  Even  the  most  recent  plans  of  primary 
schools  and  kindergarten  work,  although  they  represent 
great  advances  upon  the  conditions  of  former  years, 
present  evidences  of  this  as  clearly  as  one  need  wish 
to  have  them. 

For  instance,  it  seems  perfectly  natural  to  almost  all 
teachers  that  any  normal  child  should  be  able  to  ac- 
complish practically  any  simple  task  or  game  or  play- 
exercise.  The  main  idea  in  the  minds  of  most  of  them 
is,  that  the  exercise  should  not  on  the  surface  be  com- 
plex ;  whether  the  child  reacts  wisely  and  healthfully  is 


1 02       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

usually  decided  mainly  by  the  fact  of  his  receiving  tem- 
porary pleasure.  This  test  is  plainly  fallacious,  as 
children  are  constantly  eager  to  do  things  which  are 
not  helpful.  A  child  has  pleasure  in  remaining  awake 
at  night  when  he  should  be  asleep ;  he  often  delights  in 
movements,  such  as  rapidly  whirling  about  as  if  on  a 
pivot,  which  are  harmful ;  he  will  repeatedly  make 
harsh  and  disagreeable  noises  that  exhaust  energy 
much  more  rapidly  than  pleasant  sounds.  He  may  for 
the  time  being  enjoy  these  things,  or  countless  others 
like  them,  so  that  his  reception  of  any  parts  of  a  curric- 
ulum is  not  necessarily  a  test  of  its  real  value  for  him. 
Thus  he  may  have  a  certain  fairly  great  interest  in  the 
\/  ordinary  kindergarten  exercises  of  weaving,  plaiting 
''  and  threading.  Nevertheless,  there  is  little  doubt  in 
my  mind  that  these  games  are  decidedly  harmful.  In 
the  weak  and  immature  condition  of  such  children's 
eye-muscles,  body-muscles  and  nerve-cells,  the  efforts 
required  sufficiently  to  perfect  motor  accommodation  to 
attain  the  desired  end  must  unquestionably  lead  to 
strain  and  consequent  exhaustion.  The  ordinary  exer- 
cises in  drawing  are  beyond  doubt  useless  and  harmful. 
In  its  best  aspect,  it  is  merely  muscle-exercise,  but 
even  as  such,  it  is,  partly  from  its  cramped  and  spas- 
modic position  and  movements,  decidedly  deficient.  In 
almost  all  cases  it  is  the  crudest  sort  of  caricature  that 
represents  and  portrays  nothing.  It  leads  to  no  good, 
and  it  develops  no  ability,  but,  on  the  contrary,  elevates 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  IO3 

wrong  and  vicious  presentments  into  undue  prominence. 
When  it  is  "directed,"  it  is,  if  anything,  worse;   for 
then  it  receives  the  badge  of  authoritative  affirmation. 
Unless  it  is  the  "  graphic  record  of  a  perceived  fact,"  it  i  '^ 
is  worse  than  valueless.     Naturally  one  cannot  expect' 
small  children  to  perceive  correctly,  nor  does  one  look/ 
to  them  for  exact  records. 

In  much  the  same  way  these  pupils  get  no  good  from 
the  sewing  games ;  they  should  not  be  forced  to  at-  X 
tempt  the  fine  movements  that  are  required.  When  I 
have  seen  little  ones  of  four  and  five  years  of  age 
laboriously  trying,  by  straining  all  their  little  control  of 
body  and  mind,  to  put  a  too  fine  needle  through  a  series 
of  correspondingly  small  holes,  the  thought  of  kindness 
turned  to  cruelty,  of  good  being  twisted  into  bad,  has 
always  come  to  me.  In  the  same  category  are  the 
exercises  of  pricking  in  outline,  of  stringing  small 
beads,  of  outlining  with  seeds,  beads  and  similarly 
minute  objects.  In  all  these  exercises  a  brave  show 
is  made  for  the  edification  of  visitors,  examiners  and 
parents ;  but  the  benefit  derived  is  doubtful,  and  al- 
though the  children  may  seem  more  or  less  interested, 
—  whether  or  not  the  interest  is  an  unnaturally  forced 
one,  —  nevertheless,  the  intended  benefits  are  not  neces- 
sarily acquired.  In  all  this  sort  of  work  one  can  see  ( 
that  its  basis  is  ordinary  adult  mental  action  and  adult  \ 
environment,  but  filed  down  and  clipped  off  to  such  a 
body-size  that  its  practicability,  as  well  as  its  stability, 


I04      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

has  likewise  departed.  The  method  bears  too  much  of 
the  marks  of  useless  pettiness,  and  in  practice  usually 
runs  along  with  a  commensurate  absence  of  real  spon- 
taneity. In  related  ways,  the  uses  of  the  sand  table, 
while  not  so  bad,  are  distinctly  lacking  in  real  freedom  ; 
there  is  too  much  confinement,  too  much  of  a  pre- 
arranged order,  too  much  of  a  lesson  about  it.  It 
answers  finely  to  take  up  a  child's  time,  to  "  keep  him 
out  of  mischief,"  but  it  is  far  from  being  a  scientific 
foundation  for  broad  development. 

One  should  also  find  fault  with  the  methods  of 
story-telling  now  employed.  With  most  teachers  the 
principal  test  of  a  story  is  whether  it  holds  the  chil- 
dren's attention.  This  test  is  plainly  a  fallacious  one, 
for  there  is,  as  a  rule,  but  little  reliance  to  be  put 
upon  a  child's  natural  taste.  There  is  no  more  reason 
why  he  should  know  what  is  best  for  his  general  in- 
tellectual welfare  than  that  he  should  spontaneously 
recognize  which  is  his  most  advantageous  food.  Just 
as  when  an  infant,  he  puts  everything  that  he  can 
>  grasp  into  his  mouth,  so  later  he  will  show  a  keen  in- 
terest in  all  manner  of  narrative,  without  any  distinc- 
tion of  whether  it  is  good  or  bad.  Thus  he  will  listen 
with  absorbed  attention  to  ghost  stories,  which  haunt 
him  for  nights ;  he  may  like  stories  embodying  un- 
favorable traits  of  character,  as  well  as  those  which 
illustrate  virtues.  The  main  thing  which  he  wants  is 
that  the  story  must  show  movement,  action.     He  does 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  105 

not  require  sequence,  order,  likelihood,  or  a  healthy 
development  of  the  component  events.  And  princi- 
pally this  is  so,  because  he  knows  nothing  of  these 
qualities.  One  of  his  weakest  spots  lies  in  his  rudi- 
mentary selective  faculty.  This  appears  to  be  almost 
equally  dwarfed  in  his  teachers,  who  seem  disposed 
blindly  to  follow  a  schedule  provided  for  them.  At 
times  the  stories  look  as  if  they  were  expressly  made 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  little  one  from  a  know- 
ledge of  reality,  of  true  relations.  Instead  of  making  ' 
the  ascent  from  preparatory  existence  to  real  life  as  1 
plain,  gradual  and  safe  as  possible,  they  evidently  seek 
to  encumber  it,  to  make  it  steep  and  inaccessible. 

Thus,  in  one  of  the  most  recent  synopses  of  kinder- 
garten work  issued  this  year,  a  list  of  story-games  is 
given,  showing  how  the  narrative  of  the  exercises 
should  be  developed.  Impersonation  of  qualities,  occu- 
pations, various  characters,  animals,  plants,  and  many 
animate  and  inanimate  things  is  the  main  feature. 
And  they  are  all  without  distinction  treated  on  the 
same  level.  Thus,  a  child  taught  in  this  way  esti-  i 
mates  a  windmill  as  having  the  same  vitality  as  the 
miller,  the  movements  of  a  weather  vane  are  just  as 
important  as  the  exercises  held  in  the  church  below, 
the  life  of  a  horse  as  weighty  as  that  of  the  husband 
and  father  who  drives  him.  In  most  of  these  story- 
games  there  is  commonly  a  startling  look  of  discrimi- 
nation, of  healthful  relations,  expressed  in  a  healthy 


/^I06  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

way.  Teachers  regularly  forget  that  a  child  is  no  fit 
person  to  appreciate  the  beautiful  principle  of  /'ari 
^pour  Vart.  For  what  they  are  to  be  and  think  must 
be  spread  before  them  so  plainly  as  to  be  utterly  be- 
yond the  accident  of  misconception.  These  games, 
with  all  their  crudeness,  are  far  from  filling  the  re- 
quirements. And  the  saddest  thing  of  all  is,  that  one 
rarely  finds  even  in  the  ideas  of  reputedly  capable 
teachers  an  inkling  of  the  false  notions  which  children 
thereby  receive,  nor  the  difficulty  of  unlearning  a  set 
of  relations  acquired  when  the  mental  life  is  so  plastic 
as  to  be  almost  fluid.  That  even  reputedly  wise  kin- 
dergartners  are  blind  to  this  danger  is  seen  when  in  a 
pamphlet  on  the  subject,  one  of  them  says:  "It  is 
almost  needless  to  add  that  in  these  games  lies  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  kindergarten." 

Another  unestimated  difficulty  lies  in  the  use  of 
verse,  mostly  in  the  way  of  songs.  These  rhymes  to 
an  adult  seem  the  simplest  things  imaginable.  But 
they  are  so  only  when  one  is  used  to  the  conditions  of 
rhymes.  Any  simple  idea  expressed  in  prose  and  in 
verse  will  make  quite  unlike  impressions.  In  prose 
one  has  little  in  the  order,  arrangement  or  rhythm  of 
the  words  to  distract  one's  attention  or  to  confuse  the 
meaning.  The  contrary  is  true  of  verse.  This  is 
generally  disregarded  with  children,  and  the  natural 
result  is  that  they  sing  and  repeat  words  without  hav- 
ing the  faintest  idea  of  what  the  meaning  is ;  and  in 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE   PRIMARY   SCHOOL  lO/ 

SO  singing,  they  are  therefore  going  through  the  very 
process  of  rote-learning  which  the  kindergarten  is  sup- 
posed especially  to  frown  upon.  Nothing  is  easier 
than  to  find  many  flagrant  examples  of  this  abuse ; 
and  I  have  seen  them  in  every  kindergarten  with 
which  I  am  thoroughly  familiar.  Even  in  the  very 
simple  lines  in  which  are  the  verses : 

"Barrels  I  bind  as  a  cooper  should  do; 
And  hard  do  I  labor  to  make  them  fit  true," 

I  found  unexpected  confusion.  I  questioned  four  of 
the  children  who  had  been  singing  this  rhyme,  and 
found  the  strangest  mixture  of  ideas.  They  all  pro- 
nounced the  first  three  words  as  if  they  were  only 
one,  and  they  had  as  little  conception  of  what  one 
meant  by  binding  a  barrel  as  they  had  of  Devonian 
stratification.  The  inverted  order  and  the  slightly 
unusual  use  of  words  put  them  entirely  off  the  track. 
This  is  true  not  only  of  very  young  children,  but 
of  children  in  general.  They  repeat  words  like  a  par- 
rot, and  very  rarely  stop  to  inquire  the  meaning  of 
them.  Their  environment  is  not  so  arranged  that 
they  may  account,  as  far  as  their  primitive  powers 
admit,  for  every  idea,  phrase  and  word.  Often  they 
will  go  for  months  and  sometimes  for  years  with  noth- 
ing but  the  mistiest  notions  of  the  right  significance 
of  the  verses.  Not  only  do  the  exigencies  of  rhyme 
help  to  obscure  the  meaning   which    they   otherwise 


I08  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

might  obtain,  but  also  they  tend  to  make  the  child 
uncertain  in  the  daily  uses  of  language.  And  not 
only  are  children  of  the  kindergarten  age  so  influ- 
enced, but  also  are  those  considerably  older  similarly 
affected.  This  was  proved  very  clearly  by  the  evi- 
dence of  Dr.  Joyce  before  the  Manual  and  Technical 
Instruction  Committee  in  England  a  short  time  ago. 
He  believed  that  the  ordinary  boy  is  unable  to  under- 
stand even  simple  verse.  As  a  proof,  he  told  the 
Committee  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  asking  chil- 
dren the  meaning  of  the  following  verses : 

"  She  is  a  rich  and  rare  land, 
She  is  a  fresh  and  fair  land, 
She  is  a  dear  and  rare  land  — 
This  native  land  of  mine." 

Few  children  knew  what  their  native  land  was,  or 
what  it  meant,  and  fewer  still  the  meaning  of  the 
adjectives.  One  boy  thought  that  the  phrase  "fair 
land "  meant  good  soil ;  he  continued  to  explain  that 
"  She  is  a  dear  and  rare  land  "  meant  th«.t  land  was 
hard  to  get,  and  rents  were  high. 

To  persist  in  such  exercises  leads  to  the  employ- 
ment of  words  as  sounds,  without  a  concurrent  growth 
or  real  understanding.  The  harm  that  this  can  do  is 
not  limited  to  the  earliest  years,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
may  extend  over  a  whole  lifetime.  As  Pestalozzi  said  : 
*'The  use  of  mere  words   produces  men  who   believe 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  109 

that  they  have  reached  the  goal,  because  their  whole 
life  has  been  spent  in  talking  about  it,  but  who  never 
have  run  toward  it,  because  no  motive  impelled  them 
to  make  the  effort."  This  error  is  merely  an  example 
of  the  general  course  of  training  which  the  present  — 
kindergarten  provides.  All  through  the  exercises, 
one  can  see  the  evidences  of  a  conventional  idea 
of  children's  development,  of  the  ignorance  of  any 
other  duty  than  to  complete  as  much  of  a  stated 
schedule  of  instruction  as  the  time  and  the  limited 
capabilities  of  the  children  admit.  Whatever  changes 
in  curriculum  one  may  think  necessary  are  equalled  or 
exceeded  by  changes  in  the  spirit  and  acquirements  in 
the  instructors  who  have  undertaken  to  carry  it  out, 
and  any  method  can  be  administered  in  such  different 
ways  that  often  it  is  hard  to  decide  where  the  respon- 
sibility of  its  good  or  bad  results  rests. 

At  all  events,  one  knows  that  in  the  education  — 
particularly  the  early  education  —  of  children  certain 
facts  in  development  and  their  elaborations  must  not 
be  lost  sight  of.  For  example,  we  know  that  the 
senses  develop  before  the  higher  intellectual  powers, 
and  it  naturally  follows  that  exercise  of  these  senses 
goes  before  the  more  abstract  lessons.  Now  the  clear 
appreciation  and  use  of  mathematics  —  the  relations  of 
numbers  —  are  unquestionably  so  abstract  as  plainly 
to  be  outside  of  the  scope  of  the  elementary  school- 
child.     It  is  true  that  children  learn  to  count  and  use 


no  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

figures  very  early.  It  seems  to  be  a  special  delight 
of  nursery  governesses  and  young  aunts  to  teach  little 
ones  barely  able  to  walk  how  to  count  up  to  ten,  to 
twenty,  even  to  a  hundred,  and  then  they  point  with 
pride  to  the  brilliantly  developing  mind  and  the  fine 
results  of  their  efforts.  It  is  true  that  young  children 
can  learn  numbers  by  rote  just  as  well  as  they  can 
learn  any  other  arrangements  of  sounds ;  but  in  doing 
so,  they  derive  no  benefit  from  the  process,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  receive  harm.  One  must  keep  in 
mind  that  the  faculty  which  governs  mathematical 
computation  is  located  among  the  higher  centres  in 
the  cerebrum  ;  that  this  part  of  the  brain  is  among 
the  latest  to  attain  maturity;  that  therefore  in  child- 
hood it  is  in  no  condition  to  be  put  to  a  strain. 
Whenever  a  scholar  at  this  age  is  forced  into  attempts 
to  use  this  faculty,  a  process  similar  to  any  other  sort 
of  exhaustive  work  results.  One  can  the  more  easily 
understand  the  inevitable  outcome  from  a  knowledge 
of  the  fact  that  the  nerve-cells  of  children,  being  more 
or  less  in  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium,  are  easily 
exhausted,  so  that  a  consequent  nerve  poverty  must 
show  itself.  Thus  such  children  receive  no  permanent 
value  from  studies  in  mathematics,  simple  though  they 
be ;  and  what  is  more,  if  these  studies  were  not 
begun  until  greater  maturity,  —  say  at  least  ten  years 
of  age,  —  not  only  would  a  vast  amount  of  nervous 
wear  and   tear  be  saved,  but  also  the  children  would 


THE   PLACE  OF  THE   PRIMARY   SCHOOL  III 

learn  as  much  in  one  year  as  they  formerly,  under  the 
present  adverse  conditions  and  methods,  learnt  in  five. 
The  time  thus  saved  might  be  profitably  employed  in 
strengthening  both  mind  and  body. 

There  are  many  other  abuses  that  one  can  readily 
select  from  the  ordinary  elementary  course,  although 
because  the  main  tendency  of  rational  objections  has 
now  been  shown,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  go  over 
them  at  any  length.  Still,  one  may  mention  the 
futility  of  "exercises  to  cultivate  the  power  of  pro- 
nouncing new  words  with  the  aid  of  diacritical  mark- 
ings "  ^  in  the  first  year  of  the  elementary  course. 
The  scholar  not  only  must  learn  these  arbitrary 
markings,  by  means  of  the  worst  sort  of  rote-memo- 
rizing, but  also,  if  he  is  to  use  them  at  all  well,  he 
must  show  a  power  of  observation  and  association 
far  beyond  his  years.  If  the  attempt  is  seriously 
persisted  in,  the  same  process  of  nerve  exhaustion 
mentioned  above  must  of  necessity  come  about.  He 
may  gratify  the  pride  of  an  examining  committee  and 
his  teacher,  but  only  at  the  expense  of  his  own 
healthful  development.  For  related  reasons,  the  ex- 
ercises in  spelling  are  bad  —  so  bad,  in  fact,  that 
one  should  not  feel  the  need  of  argument  in  the  mat- 
ter. There  is  before  me  the  latest  "Word  Book" 
that   is   supposed   to   be    a    model    for    teaching    the 

^  From  "the  latest  and  most  advanced  word-book  for  elementary 
grades." 


y 


112      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

young  idea  how  to  spell,  that  claims  to  offer  "a  care- 
fully developed  and  progressive  plan  for  teaching  the 
forms  and  values  of  every-day  English  words."  It  is 
supposed  to  be  used  by  young  children,  although  its 
plan,  to  my  mind,  seems  to  indicate  something  quite 
different.  It  transgresses  almost  all  the  psychological 
laws  of  child-life  that  it  touches,  and  should  be  re- 
garded as  an  excellent  means  to  inculcate  a  worthy 
appreciation  of  the  difficulty  of  the  English  language. 
The  compiler  has  furnished  the  obstacles  of  rote- 
learning,  of  confusing  resemblances,  of  a  meaningless 
accumulation  of  sounds,  of  arbitrary  diacritical  marks 
that  for  their  learning  require  an  adult's  concentrated 
attention,  of  examples  in  verse  and  prose  far  beyond 
the  scholar's  years,  of  the  multiplication  of  abstract 
rules,  —  of  a  method,  in  short,  that  is  cumbersome, 
burdensome,  unhealthy  and  wasteful.  In  a  spirit  of 
congratulation  he  informs  us  that  in  this  wise  book 
for  children,  little  more  than  babes,  "  Lists  of  words 
often  mispronounced  are  provided,  together  with  many 
comparative  exercises,  including  synonyms,  words  of 
opposite  meaning,  words  of  several  meanings,  words 
spelled  alike  and  spelled  differently.  In  these,  as  in 
all  terms  defined  and  in  all  selections  for  dictation, 
the  use  of  diacritical  marks  is  designed  to  lead  natu- 
rally to  the  intelligent  use  of  the  dictionary." 

All   in   all,   the   present    methods    teach   too   much, 
and    allow    too    little    opportunity    for    development. 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  II3 

Parents  depend  too  much  upon  the  teacher,  and  be- 
lieve that  their  responsibility  ends  as  soon  as  they 
hand  the  child  over  to  the  school.  They  do  not  with 
sufficient  clearness  see  that  the  school  rightly  is  no 
more  than  a  means  of  mental  discipline,  and  that  its 
duty  lies  in  building  up  a  course  in  mental  gym- 
nastics. Anything  else,  such  as  looking  out  for  the 
physical  basis  of  education,  is  foreign  to  it.  The 
prime  factor  of  caring  for  every  unit  of  energy,  of 
avoiding  every  item  of  waste,  of  nourishing  and  pro- 
tecting every  budding  function,  in  other  words,  of 
conserving  nutrition,  is  absolutely  ignored.  Not  only 
is  there  need  of  such  care,  but  also  there  is  a  live 
duty  to  provide  for  it.  Without  such  provision,  the 
efforts  of  teaching  not  only  are  thrown  away,  but  also 
they  aid  in  harming  the  very  children  whom  they 
are  supposed  to  help.  If  the  community  has  a  right 
to  insist  upon  the  education  of  its  children,  it  is  nat- 
ural to  believe  in  its  associated  right  to  insist  upon 
such  prophylactic  measures  on  the  part  of  parents, 
that  the  children  may  be  in  proper  condition  to  be 
educated.  Without  this,  no  matter  what  the  methods 
of  instruction  are,  no  one  can  be  sure  that  a  child 
is  being  benefited.  It  is  much  on  the  same  plan  of 
decreeing  that  a  man  should  eat  a  certain  amount, 
whether  or  not  his  stomach  is  able  to  assimilate  the 
food.  If  this  precaution  is  not  taken,  the  law  inflicts  use- 
less and  wanton  cruelty,  and  instead  of  helping,  harms. 


114       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

The  need  for  a  similar  care  is  still  greater  with  chil- 
dren, for  not  only  is  their  present  welfare  concerned, 
but  also  that  of  all  their  future  connections.  If  a 
teacher  saw  that  a  pupil  was  so  astigmatic  as  to  ren- 
der sight  painful  and  imperfect,  he  would  insist  upon 
the  means  of  investigation  and  relief  before  allowing 
him  to  continue  in  the  class.  The  same  reasoning 
applies  to  every  part  of  the  child's  jDody  that  directly 
or  indirectly  affects  the  process  of  metabolism  ;  and 
it  is  a  prerequisite  of  attempts  in  the  way  of  formal 
education  to  insist  upon  an  assurance  that  all  the 
child's  physical  functions  are  normal,  active  and 
healthy.  If  a  child's  nose  or  throat  is  in  such  a 
condition  that  full  respiration  is  not  possible,  then 
oxidation  is  impaired,  tissue  change  is  unnaturally 
limited,  and  consequently  mental  action  and  devel- 
opment are  not  normal.  If  a  child  is  deficient  in 
the  sugar-forming  ferments,  or  the  secretion  of  hydro- 
chloric acid,  or  any  of  the  constituent  elements  of 
the  bile,  his  processes  of  digestion  are  impaired.  As 
a  result,  fermentation  and  putrefaction  of  intestinal 
contents  may  supervene,  with  symptoms  of  mild  poi- 
soning. Among  these  symptoms  one  frequently  sees 
mental  torpidity  or  obliquity,  and  even  viciousness. 
The  child  is  backward,  and  so  retards  the  whole 
class ;  he  sees  the  teaching  in  a  wrong  light,  and 
thus  his  knowledge  of  the  matter,  with  the  consequent 
development,  is   twisted ;    he  feels  the   weight  of  un- 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  1 15 

usual    burdens,    and    so    becomes    discouraged    more    x 
easily  than  is  necessary  for  him. 

The  question  of  nutrition  is  of  prime  importance ; 
in  fact  there  is  nothing  in  education  that  I  know  of 
which  is  more  so.  It  includes  not  merely  the  ques- 
tion of  food,  and  the  right  proportion  of  the  different 
food  elements,  as  well  as  the  perfect  assimilation  of 
them,  but  also  all  the  other  items  of  distribution  of 
body  heat,  of  rest,  avoidance  of  undue  fatigue,  rec- 
reation fit  in  quality  and  amount,  the  selection  and 
variety  of  occupation.  Not  one  of  these  considera^ 
tions  may  with  impunity  be  neglected,  and  every  one 
of  them,  when  rightly  fulfilled,  carries  a  proportion- 
ate amount  of  benefit,  which  will  tend  to  make  a 
normal,  vigorous  and  capable  adult.  To  put  each 
child  right  in  these  respects  provides  a  foundation 
upon  which  to  rear  the  superstructure  of  effective 
educational  work.  But  without  them  the  teacher 
works  against  odds  which  are  great  in  proportion  to  ♦ 
existing  shortcomings.  One  must  appreciate  that  at 
the  start  the  child  is  heavily  handicapped ;  that  Froe- 
bel's  opinion  that  "every  child  brings  with  him  into 
the  world  the  natural  disposition  to  see  correctly  what 
is  before  him,  or  in  other  words,  the  truth,"  is  very 
far  from  the  fact.  Every  child  has  many  reasons  for  y 
not  seeing  the  truth,  and  in  most  cases  does  not  see  ' 
it.  If  he  is  so  nourished  that  every  part  of  him 
works  with  a  minimum  amount  of  friction,  the  chances 


Il6  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

for  the  diversion  of  energy  are  lessened.  It  stands 
to  plain  reason  that  a  child  who  suffers  from  an  over- 
acting heart,  with  the  inevitable  cerebral  and  circu- 
latory disturbances,  must  be  in  poor  condition  to 
conduct  the  hard  work  of  an  organism  that  is  growing 
and  changing  with  great  rapidity.  In  the  same  way, 
a  sufferer  from  the  air  starvation  which  results  from 
hypertrophied  tonsils,  from  adenoid  fungations,  or  one 
whose  rest  is  broken,  who  has  the  obstacles  of  nervous 
irritation  to  overcome,  cannot  be  fit  material  to  go 
through  the  processes  of  healthful  tissue  change. 
Donaldson  wisely  says  that  "education  consists  in 
modifications  of  the  central  nervous  system."  Just 
as  far  as  these  modifications  are  well  regulated  and 
controlled  will  the  child  react  to  the  normal  stimuli 
of  development. 

In  deciding  upon  the  best  means  of  developing  a 
child,  it  is  often  wise  to  follow  Nature's  plan,  —  not 
our  own.  Well-founded  objection  has  been  found  with 
the  commonly  received  idea  that  a  child's  mind  may 
be  made  to  order  by  a  schoolmaster.  It  seems  hardly 
necessary  to  reject  the  imputation,  although  practi- 
cally that  is  what  we  have  been  doing.  On  reading 
the  dictum  of  so  well-known  a  Froebelian  as  Conrad 
Diehl,  one  has  proof  of  this.  He  says  that  "  color  is 
the  first  sensation  of  which  an  infant  is  capable.  With 
the  first  ray  of  light  that  enters  the  retina  of  the 
eye,  the  presence  of  color  forces  itself  upon  the  mind. 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY  SCHOOL  II7 

When  light  is  present,  color  is  present."  Herr  Diehl 
is  far  off  the  track.  The  retina  is  and  must  be  inca- 
pable of  distinguishing  any  color  at  all  for  some  time, 
just  as  at  first  the  ear  is  incapable  of  exact  discrimi- 
nation of  sound,  or  the  skin  of  an  accurate  sense  of 
touch.  To  follow  out  Diehl's  idea  tends  to  produce 
the  mind  "made  to  order  by  the  schoolmaster."  Just 
as  we  know  that  the  range  of  sensations  of  an  adult 
is  only  a  fractional  part  of  what  really  exists,  so  we 
know  that  the  range  of  a  young  child  is  proportionally 
limited.  To  found  a  curriculum  on  the  supposition  of 
full  potency  in  the  latter  is  stupefying  to  him.  It 
directly  antagonizes  the  growth  of  one  of  the  main 
educational  needs  :  the  development  of  judgment.  It 
is  only  by  carefully  watching  the  various  faculties  and 
noticing  the  order  of  their  appearance,  coupled  with 
the  gradual  exercise  of  them,  that  the  priceless  faculty 
of  exact  discrimination  and  comparative  valuation  is 
formed.  By  such  means  it  is  possible  to  bring  into 
life  a  sense  of  proportion,  of  the  relative  value  of 
things.  In  this  way  a  clear  road  may  be  opened  up 
for  the  progress  of  the  power  to  observe.  And  when 
the  little  one  notices  more  and  more  fully  what  is  about 
him,  what  —  as  he  must  plainly  recognize  —  his  teach- 
ers and  adult  connections  are  constantly  noticing,  then 
perforce  his  power  of  expression  will  likewise  grow. 
And  in  the  same  way  that  it  is  desirable  to  stimulate 
his  sense  of  color,  so  it  is  necessary  to  stimulate  his 


Il8  THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE  CHILD 

other  normal  senses.  Who  shall  say  that  a  child 
should  have  a  carefully  developed  eye,  and  that  his 
ear,  his  taste,  his  senses  of  smell  and  touch,  should 
remain  crude  ?  One  may  be  as  important  as  another, 
and  all,  when  wisely  brought  out,  may  be  made  the 
means  of  a  full  and  rounded  growth.  Through  these 
faculties  the  child  first  comes  into  contact  with  the 
great  world  about  him,  and  by  the  normal  flourishing 
of  all  of  them  is  he  best  able  to  take  an  adequate  part 
in  the  life  of  the  world. 

Since  these  senses  are  among  the  first  faculties  to 
show  an  active  growth,  it  follows  that  first  instruction 
should  be  devoted  to  them  rather  than  to  more  abstract 
things.  In  following  out  this  idea  one  would,  for  in- 
stance, have  little  children  use  a  box  of  colors  long 
before  they  made  an  attempt  to  draw  lines,  or  to  follow 
drawings  made  in  outline.  Such  a  course  would  be 
more  pleasing  to  them,  would  be  more  in  line  with 
their  natural  development,  and  at  the  same  time,  would 
remove  the  disadvantages  arising  from  too  early  a 
strain  which  drawing  puts  upon  the  power  of  exact 
coordination.  To  limit  them  to  small  and  exact  exer- 
cises, is  unquestionably  harmful,  for  the  whole  mech- 
anism of  their  bodies  and  minds  calls  for  freedom 
and  lack  of  restraint.  For  similar  reasons  the  sand 
table  should  give  way  to  a  large  pile  of  sand  or  dirt, 
where  they  could  dig  and  delve,  could  play  and  build 
with  utter  freedom.     If  one  compares   the  actions   of 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY   SCHOOL  II9 

a  class  of  children  working  at  a  sand  table  with  those 
seen  on  the  sand  of  the  seashore,  or  in  the  dirt  of  a 
garden,  one  will  have  no  further  need  of  argument. 
So  far  as  possible,  all  unnecessary  restraints  should  -— 
be  removed.  The  hard  confines  of  the  ordinary  room  1 
for  kindergarten  and  elementary  work  should  be  abol-  1 
ished.  The  requirements  of  the  word  kindergarten 
should  be  fulfilled.  Sessions  should  be  held  in  a  gar- 
den, rather  than  within  the  unlovely  walls  of  a  bleak 
room.  The  change  could  be  easily  made  even  in  the 
ordinary  city  school.  The  roof,  when  properly  en- 
closed, would  make  the  finest  sort  of  solarium,  where 
natural  conditions  could  be  imitated  with  artistic  and 
hygienic  exactness.  As  things  are  now,  children  spend 
an  important  part  of  their  lives  in  cages,  the  regula- 
tions controlling  them  are  those  fit  for  captives,  and 
the  physical  discipline  of  making  them  sit  in  stiff  and 
studied  attitudes  on  poorly  shaped  benches  is  an] 
admirable  one  to  develop  a  race  of  puppets.  There 
is  not  enough  freedom,  not  enough  spontaneity  ;  the 
common  function  of  the  elementary  teacher  is  too 
much  that  of  a  keeper  or  an  upper  nurse  maid,  and 
too  many  believe  that  her  charges  are  properly  influ- 
enced only  when  they  fear  and  dread  her. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  much  further  into  details, 
and  one  can  easily  follow  out  the  main  idea,  and  apply 
it  to  studies  which  come  later  in  the  school  life.  One 
must   keep   in  mind  that  every  subject  should,  in   its 


I20       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

claim  for  a  place  in  the  curriculum,  be  judged  by  its 
adaptability  to  the  child's  growth.     For  instance,  gram- 
,   mar,  which  is  highly  abstract,  has  no  place  in  either 
elementary  or  the  so-called  grammar  schools.     It  should 
be  confined  to  high  schools  or  the  secondary  schools, 
where   the   mental   development    of    the   students   ap- 
proaches  the   adult   form.       On    the   other   hand,   the 
,    modern   languages,  taught   not   from   books,  but   only 
I  from  the  conversation  of  walks,  games,  and  practical 
f    "talks,"  might  form  a  part  of  the  course  of  very  young 
children,    whose    speech    centre    develops   very   early. 
The   resulting   exercise  would   differ   totally  from   the 
later  work  now  done  in  the  classic  languages,  which  are 
taught  as  grammar  is  taught,  and  so  should  be  kept  for 
later  years.     Again,  one  might  take  up  some  selected 
work  in  physical  geography,  and  so  manipulate  it  as  to 
make   it   extremely  interesting   and   beneficial  to  very 
young  children.     But  political  geography  should  under 
(  no  circumstances   be   touched  until  the  pupil   is   well 
enough    developed  to  understand  the   principles  upon 
which  the  history  of  national  life  is  founded. 

It  is  an  easy  task  to  go  through  the  regular  course  of 
studies,  and  select  what  is  good  and  what  bad,  and  the 
main  factor  which  inevitably  will  lead  to  this  choice  is 
the  better  education  of  teachers.  We  must  entirely 
get  rid  of  the  idea  that  any  person  who  can  pass  the 
meagre  examinations  for  teachers  is  competent  to 
teach,  and  the  belief  that  the  youngest  children  require 


THE   PLACE  OF  THE  PRIMARY   SCHOOL  121 

the  teachers  of  least  skill  and  ability  is  still  more 
viciously  harmful.  Such  children,  who  are  bundles  of 
possibilities  as  yet  unsolidified,  are  the  very  ones  who 
need  the  wisest  direction.  And  if  they  were  wisely 
directed,  their  later  development  would  be  much  surer, 
better,  nobler.  In  the  face  of  such  teaching  there 
would  be  less  cause  for  complaint,  there  would  be  less 
cause  for  men  like  Herbert  Spencer  to  condemn  the 
methods  upon  which  the  advancement  of  the  commun- 
ity rests.  Not  unjustly  does  he  exclaim :  "  What  with 
perceptions  unnaturally  dulled  by  early  thwartings,  and 
a  coerced  attention  to  books — what  with  the  mental 
confusion  produced  by  teaching  subjects  before  they 
can  be  understood,  and  in  each  of  them  giving  general-! 
izations  before  the  facts  of  which  these  are  the  general- 
izations —  what  with  making  the  pupil  a  mere  passive 
recipient  of  others'  ideas,  and  not  leading  him  to  be  an 
active  enquirer,  and  what  with  taxing  the  mind  to 
excess,  there  are  few  minds  as  efficient  as  they  might 
be." 


^^ 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Place  of   Religion   in  the  Development  of 
A  Child 

There  is  so  much  in  a  child's  life  that  rests  on 
belief,  and  by  necessity  he  must  be  so  accustomed  to 
taking  things  on  faith,  that  he  of  all  beings  seems 
naturally  prepared  to  accept  the  religious  idea  and  be 
governed  by  it.  Moreover,  he  has  the  great  forces 
of  custom  and  habit,  of  imitation,  of  the  weight  of 
authority,  working  upon  him,  to  the  end  of  inducing 
a  participation  in  devotional  forms  and  a  varyingly 
blind  loyalty  to  certain  received  articles  of  faith. 
Wisely  enough  Maudesley  has  remarked :  "  To  say 
that  the  great  majority  of  men  reason  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word  is  the  greatest  nonsense  in  the 
world ;  they  get  their  beliefs  as  they  do  their  instincts 
and  their  habits,  as  a  part  of  their  inherited  constitu- 
tion, of  their  education,  and  the  routine  of  their  lives." 
That  this  is  true  in  a  large  measure  should  not  be 
doubted,  for  the  evidence  of  it,  wherever  we  turn,  is 
before  our  eyes, 

A  child  who  is  brought  up  in  a  Protestant  family 

122 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  1 23 

looks  upon  the  doctrine  of  Papal  infallibility  as  unrea- 
sonable, while  the  offspring  of  Roman  Catholic  parents 
sees  in  it  all  necessary  sanity  of  truth.  Among  the 
Persians,  children  are  soothed  or  frightened  by  won- 
drous tales  of  jins  and  devs,  which  to  those  of  occi- 
dental training  seem  no  better  than  stories  of  fairies 
and  gnomes.  Even  in  the  limits  of  a  single,  homo- 
geneous people,  one  may  find  equally  radical  differences 
according  to  changes  which  lapse  of  time  brings; 
among  the  ancient  Jews  before  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity the  children  grew  up  to  believe  that  there  were 
angels,  but  never  did  they  have  faith  in  the  existence 
of  devils.  Even  in  Job,  Satan  was  not  so  much  of  a 
malevolent  spirit,  as  a  fault-finding,  a  critical  one. 
But  after  the  captivity  the  belief  in  which  children 
participated  was  a  wider  one  ;  bad  angels  as  well  as 
good  had  their  place  ;  the  idea  of  good  and  evil,  of  the 
free  choice  between  them,  of  a  future  life  in  which 
good  was  rewarded  and  evil  punished ;  in  fact,  many 
of  the  elements  of  a  purely  teleological  system,  the 
direct  descendant  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  came 
into  Judaism,  And  the  difference  between  post- 
Babylonian  and  modern  Judaism  is  just  as  striking. 

There  seems  to  be  in  the  vast  majority  of  people 
a  natural  need  for  some  sort  of  belief;  an  inborn 
desire  to  place  dependence  upon  forces  outside  of 
their  experience  and  knowledge.  And  this  when 
brought  into   contact  with    environmental    influences 


124       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

determines  for  ages  the  form  of  belief.  Moreover, 
with  this  fact  in  mind  it  is  very  interesting  to  know 
that  there  is  a  remarkable  similarity  between  most 
of  the  principal  religions  of  the  world,  due  partly  to 
the  fact  of  their  common  and  remote  descent.  This 
is  easily  followed  out  when  one  notes  that  the  direction 
of  descent  in  most  peoples  points  to  that  ancient 
mother-race,  the  Aryans.  This  people  at  a  time  when 
Europe  was  probably  an  unpeopled  wilderness  lived 
in  Central  Asia.  From  this  starting-point  emigrations 
took  place  in  various  directions,  but  mainly  towards 
the  west  and  northwest.  Doubtless  the  first  band 
was  the  Celts,  who  came  to  inhabit  a  large  part  of 
Europe.  The  bands  that  later  on  produced  respec- 
tively the  Italians,  the  Greeks  and  the  Teutons  fol- 
lowed in  their  various  ways.  One  of  the  offshoots 
founded  the  Persian  kingdom,  becoming  the  Medes 
and  the  Persians  of  history;  another  body,  having  made 
their  way  north  of  the  Caspian,  developed  into  the 
Slavonic  nations.  Very  far  back  Egypt  received  its 
inhabitants.  And  the  remnant  of  the  mother-stock 
overflowed  in  powerful  bands  through  the  passes  of 
the  Himalayas  and  Hindu  Kush  into  the  Punjab,  and 
became,  as  Bramans  and  Rajputs,  the  dominant  race 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ganges. 

These  branches  with  a  common  ancestry  and  a  com- 
mon unity  of  past  experiences  bore  in  their  customs, 
beliefs    and   language  many  distinguishing   marks,  all 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  12$ 

of  which  point  in  one  direction.  There  is  a  striking 
similarity  in  their  names  of  domestic  animals  and 
domestic  life,  words  which  they  used  before  the  time 
of  their  migrations.  On  the  other  hand,  names  of  wild 
animals,  of  warfare,  of  all  the  countless  circumstances 
of  changed  conditions,  scenes  and  occupations  vary 
with  the  time  and  place  of  their  growth.  In  the  same 
way  they  carried  with  them  folk-tales,  superstitions 
and  beliefs  that  frightened,  delighted  and  comforted 
them  through  countless  ages,  that  served  as  the  basis 
of  substantial  parts  of  their  religions,  that  gave  rise 
to  their  innumerable  gods  and  demons,  their  nymphs 
and  fauns  and  satyrs,  their  giants  and  trolls,  their 
dwarfs  and  elves.  And  even  to-day  in  our  advanced 
civilization  one  can  see  the  general  beliefs  covered 
over  with  marks  that  point  unwaveringly  to  the  dark 
and  hidden  past. 

It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  compare  some  of  the 
principal  religions  and  note  how  many  points  of  close 
agreement  they  have  which  are  founded  upon  the  most 
ancient  myths,  beliefs  that  unquestionably  indicate  a 
common  origin  and  a  common  method  of  emotional 
excitation.  For  instance,  the  Hindoo  Crishna,  the 
Persian  Mithras,  the  Egyptian  Osiris,  the  Sun-gods 
Hercules  and  Dionysius,  and  others  besides,  all  of 
whom  were  called  saviours  and  worshiped  as  such,  had 
much  the  same  history.  They  were  born  on  the  25th 
of  December,  the  day  in  the  winter  solstice,  when  the 


126  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

sun  begins  its  apparent  annual  northward  journey. 
They  all  had  virgin  mothers,  and  the  Scandinavian 
Frigga,  the  Buddhist  Maya-Maya,  the  Egyptian  Iris, 
the  Hindoo  Devaki,  the  Greek  Seraele,  are  identical. 
They  had  strikingly  similar  life  histories,  they  per- 
formed much  the  same  miracles,  the  number  of  their 
disciples  was  curiously  often  alike,  they  were  perse- 
cuted, slain,  and  rose  from  the  dead  to  ascend  into 
heaven.  A  triune  god  was  worshiped  all  the  way  from 
the  rugged  land  of  the  Scandinavians  to  the  fertile 
banks  of  the  Egyptian  Nile.  And  curiously  enough 
one  can  trace  such  widely  diverse  systems  as  the 
ancient  Greek  on  the  one  hand  and  more  purely 
modern  customs  on  the  other  back  to  a  common  stand- 
ard in  Egypt.  Herodotus  says  that  such  is  the  source 
of  the  names  of  almost  all  the  gods ;  the  Oracles  and 
the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  had  a  like  descent.  And  he 
adds  that  the  Egyptians  were  the  first  to  introduce 
public  festivals,  processions  and  solemn  supplications, 
which  the  Greeks  learned  from  them.  Much  later, 
after  the  time  and  writings  of  TertuUian,  an  equally 
strong  effect  was  produced  by  this  ancient  people  of 
the  land  of  the  Nile.  Beliefs  and  conceptions  of  the 
Trinity  as  expounded  by  Egyptian  theology  became 
freely  known,  Isis  was  once  more  worshiped,  although 
under  a  changed  name,  and  her  image,  standing  on  a 
crescent  moon,  was  almost  as  common  then  as  now. 
"The   well-known    effigy   of    that    Goddess,   with  the 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  \2J 

infant  Horus  in  her  arms,  has  descended  to  our  days 
in  the  beautiful,  artistic  creations  of  the  Madonna  and 
Child.  Such  restorations  of  old  conceptions  under 
novel  forms  were  everywhere  received  with  delight. 
When  it  was  announced  to  the  Ephesians  that  the 
Council  of  that  place,  headed  by  Cyril,  had  decreed 
that  the  Virgin  should  be  called  '  the  Mother  of  God,' 
with  tears  of  joy  they  embraced  the  knees  of  their 
bishop ;  it  was  the  old  instinct  peeping  out ;  their 
ancestors  would  have  done  the  same  for  Diana." 

Instances  of  the  prevalence  of  these  ideas  can  be 
indefinitely  multiplied,  Man  in  a  certain  phase  of  his 
being  is  unquestionably  religious.  Moreover,  he  gener- 
ally has  a  strain  of  credulity  in  him  that  readily  leads 
him  into  the  abuses  of  faith,  into  the  ways  of  supersti- 
tion. He  has  his  times  of  weakness  when  he  naturally 
turns  to  what  seems  a  higher  power  or  authority,  to 
whom  he  may  confess  his  sins  whether  of  omission  or 
commission,  to  whom  he  may  look  for  praise  of  the 
good  and  blame  of  the  bad,  who  will  show  a  broad 
bosom  to  the  sinner  upon  which  to  throw  himself  in 
times  of  doubt  and  trial.  Although  some  of  the 
world's  great  men  have  been  religious,  nevertheless, 
one  may  with  safety  say  that  the  weaker  the  man  the 
greater  will  be  the  likelihood  of  his  adopting  super- 
stition instead  of  intelligent  faith.  That  which  has 
always  stood  before  him  as  the  head  of  authority  and 
power  far   exceeding  his  own  is  what  he  is  bound  to 


128  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

pray  to.  Whatever  credulity  he  may  have  will  surely 
confuse  senseless  with  reasonable  authority.  Whether 
his  belief  is  founded  upon  ancestor  worship,  sun  wor- 
ship, or  superstition  makes  very  little  difference.  It 
is  really  not  essential  that  there  be  in  his  creed  the 
greatest  possible  approach  to  reason.  Indeed,  the  very 
condition  in  which  religion  is  commonly  of  most  use  is 
the  one  where  the  reason  is  least  apt  to  be  in  full  and 
unimpeded  sway.  The  highly  emotional  states,  where 
excitement  is  active,  are  the  most  favorable  for  the 
growth  of  religion.  A  man  who  is  exalted  by  stimu- 
lants, by  the  unrestrained  action  of  certain  camp- 
meetings,  a  woman  who  is  disappointed  in  love  or 
whose  emotional  needs  are  unfulfilled,  are  very  liable 
to  receive  an  accession  of  faith.  A  man,  who  is 
crushed,  who  is  struggling  despairingly,  who  has  been 
abused  and  harassed  until  his  nervous  irritation  is 
pathological,  is  apt  to  turn  a  willing  face  to  the  prom- 
ises of  spiritual  comfort  and  rest,  of  protection  and 
reward  for  the  hardships  through  which  he  has  strug- 
gled. In  this  way  belief  assumes  the  dignity  of  a  vital 
function,  a  phase  of  mind  that  is  necessarily  associated 
with  an  unstable  and  perturbed  state  of  the  emotions, 
in  which  whatever  is  affirmed  positively  and  with  con- 
viction or  whatever  has  had  a  cumulative  force  in  the 
person's  processes  of  thought  comes  to  be  accepted  as 
proven.  Thus  Parker  believes  that  "  creeds  —  have 
come  down  to  us  with  the  force  of  centuries   behind 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  129 

them.  They  are  accepted  in  their  traditional  form 
chiefly  because  by  multitudinous  repetitions  they  have 
been  beaten  in  upon  the  mind,  and  in  most  cases  have 
been  yielded  credence  without  question  or  reasoning." 
Whether  ethics,  right  conduct,  be  associated  is  really 
immaterial.  In  most  religious  systems  it  is;  but  the 
two  factors  may  work  for  or  against  each  other  or 
quite  independently  of  each  other  without  either  being 
thereby  seriously  affected. 

These  facts  are  of  universal  application,  and  the 
phases  of  feeling  which  they  represent  may  be  found 
among  any  people  and  at  any  time.  They  should  be 
regarded  with  the  utmost  respect ;  for  although  they 
are  susceptible  of  weak  uses,  nevertheless  they  serve 
at  times  as  starting-points  of  some  of  the  finest  mo- 
tives and  emotions  of  which  man  is  capable.  In  the 
same  way  that  abnormal  excitement  and  the  conse- 
quent excesses  occur  in  Southern  and  Western  camp- 
meetings,  so  have  like  conditions  taken  place  among 
savage  tribes,  so  have  happened  the  Siva  worship  in 
India,  the  fanatical  allegiance  to  the  Bacchic  orgies 
and  the  pythoness  at  Delphi,  the  whirling  dervishes 
of  the  Mohammedans,  and  the  Northern  Shamanism. 
Wherever  religion  is  not  governed  by  a  rational  idea 
the  natural  result  is  bound  to  be  an  excess  in  the  way 
of  fanaticism  or  superstition.  The  calmer  and  more 
rational  side  of  religion  represents  quite  a  different  ele- 
ment —  that  of  contemplation,  of  philosophy,  of  a  calm 


I30       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  elevated  view  of  human  relations.  Such  a  condi- 
tion is  radically  different  from  the  one  that  produces 
the  violent  ebullitions  of  emotion  which  result  in  such 
excrescences  as  flagellation,  as  the  various  abuses  of 
sexual  affection.  Credulity  has  no  part  in  it,  a  blind 
adherence  to  an  anthropomorphic  ideal  is  very  far  from 
it.  It  represents  in  its  best  form  a  predominance  of 
the  nobler,  the  more  elevated  part  of  human  nature 
which  gradually  becomes  free  enough  to  recognize  the 
existence  and  the  need  of  an  ideal,  and  recognizing  it 
tries  to  elicit  a  mental  attitude  that  naturally  swings 
in  unison  with  it.  This  may  most  clearly  be  seen  in 
prayer,  which  does  not  by  any  means  stand  for  the 
asking  of  a  favor  or  a  benefit  nor  the  expectation  or 
wish  to  obtain  any  sort  of  gain  ;  much  rather  does  it 
signify  the  attempt  to  project  the  mind  into  a  plane 
which  is  higher  and  purer  than  its  ordinary  level,  to 
create  a  subjective  influence  that  may  show  itself  in 
objective  action.  When  religion  produces  these  re- 
sults, it  becomes  one  of  the  finest  influences  in  the 
world,  without  regard  to  its  origin  or  its  environment. 
However  true  this  may  be  of  adults,  it  does  not 
apply  to  the  child,  and  attempts  to  force  it  upon  him 
lead  to  clearly  unfortunate  results.  Only  after  long 
years  of  development  is  he  able  to  attain  the  adult's 
religious  view-point.  His  natural  state  puts  him  in 
the  condition  of  a  savage,  who  is  incapable  of  attain- 
ing a  fine   religious    feeling.     The  low  form   of   emo- 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  I3I 

tions  which  he  feels  renders  the  abuses  of  religious]\ 
feeling  inevitable.  His  disposition  is  one  of  ignorance, 
of  imperfectly  constructed  relations,  of  prone  credulity. 
The  crass  idolatry,  from  which  the  world  has  in  part 
struggled,  will  be  the  likeliest  belief  for  his  imagina- 
tion to  seize  upon,  and  out  of  it  he  will  construct  the 
fabric  of  his  religion.  To  him  there  is  no  inherent 
and  reasonable  distinction  between  falsehood  and  truth. 
He  naturally  inclines  to  superstition  because  its  beliefs 
titillate  his  wonder-loving  cast  of  mind.  Without  the 
restraints  which  mental  maturity  insures  he  is  bound 
to  fall  into  errors  that  his  untried  powers  are  sure  to 
cause.  It  is  just  as  easy  for  him  to  believe  that  God 
will  kill  bad  little  boys  by  a  thunderbolt  as  it  is  to 
recognize  the  orderly  working  of  an  electric  current. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  would  rather  believe  a  tale 
of  miracles  than  a  recital  of  plain  facts.  A  tale  of 
fairies  and  dwarfs  is  just  as  real  to  him  as  the  recital 
of  holy  events  which  concern  the  acts  of  the  good 
angels  and  Satan.  In  fact,  in  so  far  as  he  is  normal 
he  will  want  to  hear  stories  of  any  sort,  but  mostly 
those  which  have  narrative  action  in  them.  For  him- " 
self  he  requires  constant  action,  restraint  is  unnatural 
and  becomes  possible  not  only  by  practice  but  also  by 
the  growth  of  certain  parts  of  his  nervous  system  which 
are  somewhat  tardy  in  their  development.  For  this 
reason,  as  well  as  on  account  of  the  natural  immaturity 
of  his  mind,  he  is  not  capable  of  the  spiritual  elevation 


132       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

which  is  absolutely  essential  to  a  serviceable  religious 
feeling.  During  all  his  childhood  he  remains  the  grow- 
ing animal  that  knows  very  little  of  what  adults  call 
reality.  He  is  utterly  removed  from  the  culture  of 
to-day,  he  is  quite  unable  to  appreciate  the  advances 
that  have  been  made  from  past  standards,  and  the 
errors  of  undeveloped  mankind  are  what  is  most  natu- 
ral to  him.  So  far  as  his  religious  sense  goes  he  is 
on  the  plane  of  the  Terra  del  Fuegians  who  blow  into 
the  air  to  keep  away  evil  spirits,  or  the  Australian 
Bushmen  who  believe  in  an  invisible  man  in  heaven 
to  whom  they  pray  before  going  to  war,  or  the  South 
American  Payaguas  who  bury  arms  and  clothing  with 
their  dead  to  be  used  by  them  in  another  life.  He 
cannot  see  beyond  the  present ;  the  standards,  the 
authorities,  and  the  limitations  of  his  existing  environ- 
ment seem  the  inevitable  and  the  final  boundaries  of 
the  universe.  On  the  plane  of  them  he  reckons  the 
worth  and  the  fallibility  of  whatever  ideas  he  may 
have.  His  mind  is  grossly  receptive,  not  analytical, 
and  a  necessity  for  pure  truth  is  not  one  of  his 
needs.  He  is  absolutely  impervious  to  considerations 
of  purely  ideal  thoughts  and  actions,  but  under  stress 
of  command  and  instruction  may  respond  to  them  in 
much  the  same  way  that  he  would  respond  to  any 
other  sort  of  teaching.  He  cannot  be  said  to  have 
an  intelligent  appreciation  of  underlying  principles  ;  all 
that  one  may  expect  him  to  do  is  to  exhibit  a  rational 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  1 33 

obedience  to  authoritative  customs  and  demands.  His 
main  needs  are  those  which  provide  for  his  nutrition  ; 
to  this  he  is  most  easily  amenable ;  beyond  it  his  sight 
is  dim. 

It  is  for  such  reasons  that  his  religious  insight  is 
limited  and  the  depth  of  his  religious  receptivity  is 
notably  small.  Pagan  fear  and  pagan  lack  of  eleva- 
tion are  part  of  the  bonds  that  unite  him  to  the  con- 
ditions of  a  remote  past,  making  his  attitude  that  of 
the  undeveloped  heathen.  His  idea  of  God  is  and 
must  be  grossly  anthropomorphic.  He  thinks  of  God 
as  a  big  man  who  lives  far  away,  and  whose  powers 
are  strange  and  at  times  oppressive.  He  thinks  of 
Him  as  a  being  who  is  moved  by  caprice,  by  anger, 
by  cajolery,  by  pleasure,  —  in  short,  by  the  various 
impulses  that  move  fallible  human  beings.  From 
his  guardians  he  readily  assimilates  the  conception 
that  God  is  constantly  spying  upon  him  in  order  to 
find  out  his  misdeeds  ;  his  attitude  towards  Him  is 
one  of  fear  and  often  of  repulsion.  The  religious 
adult  looks  to  his  deity  for  an  elevating  strength  of 
soul,  for  the  peace  and  consolation  of  spiritual  com- 
munion, for  an  emotional  uplifting  that  at  times  passes 
all  understanding.  But  the  child  looks  at  Him  as 
an  adjunct  to  the  disciplinary  armamentarium  of  the 
household  ;  he  is  naturally  apt  to  regard  Him  as  little 
removed  from  a  bug-a-boo.  He  is  totally  unable,  from 
the  unripeness  of  his  mind,  to  know  the  meaning  of 


134  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   CHILD 

;  reverence,  to  feel  the  need  of  a  religious  growth,  of 
even  the  elements  of  spirituality.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that  with  his  faculty  of  crude  credulity,  of  easily 
aroused  fear,  of  inherent  tendency  to  absorb  wonder- 
tales  and  superstition,  he  is  easily  forced  into  a 
seeming  respect  for  religious  precepts  and  biblical 
personages.  His  faith  is  lightly  aroused,  at  times, 
for  ridiculously  slight  causes.  But  there  is  no  solid 
basis  to  it ;  it  is  always  poorly  conceived,  and  cannot 
possibly  appeal  to  his  reason,  or  the  parts  of  him 
which  lead  to  nobility  of  mind  and  heart. 

Instead  of  these  fine  influences  one  constantly  sees 
grotesque  effects  of  religious  training,  twisted  ideas, 
twisted  relations,  twisted  motives  and  plans  of  conduct 
that  are  touchingly  ridiculous  in  the  lack  of  conso- 
nance with  the  gravity  of  the  sentiments  which  they 
caricature.  It  is  even  more  touching  to  notice  how 
parents,  unconsciously  recognizing  the  child's  inability 
to  absorb  truly  religious  ideas,  smile  indulgently  at 
his  errors  and  fantastic  interpretations,  or  with  an 
attempt  to  maintain  gravity  of  expression,  seek  to 
reprove  him,  and  promise  various  and  divers  sort  of 
vengeance  from  on  high  in  case  of  infraction  of  ordi- 
nary rules.  They  rarely  do  anything  to  diminish  his 
natural  tendency  to  superstition,  to  fetich-worship, 
partly,  it  seems,  because  faith  of  any  sort  is  apt  to 
be  thought  holy,  and  attempts  to  explain  matters  — 
if  only  because   the   child   cannot   rightly  understand 


THE   PLACE  OF  RELIGION  I35 

religious   matters  —  may   evidently    create    doubt    too 
soon  in  his  mind. 

In  order  to  see  how  well  this  agrees  with  facts  we 
need  only  take  some  characteristic  anecdotes  of  chil- 
dren's religious  feeling.  I  have  tried  to  select  such 
instances  as  appeared  fair,  and  most  of  all,  those  said 
by  children  whose  surroundings  were  ordinarily,  or 
more  than  ordinarily,  reverent.  In  justice  I  must  say 
that  in  no  case  do  I  believe  that  the  little  ones  bore 
the  faintest  idea  of  disrespect  or  blasphemy.  They 
made  the  remarks  in  the  best  of  faith,  and  when  they 
fell  short  of  piety,  it  was  not  due  to  intention,  but 
rather  to  their  evident  lack  of  spiritual  appreciation. 
They  saw  no  difference  between  things  earthly  and 
heavenly,  and  honestly  spoke  out  what  was  in  their 
minds.  For  instance,  take  the  case  of  C.  J.,  a  boy 
of  ten  years,  whose  general  manner  of  life,  on  account 
of  his  physical  delicacy,  had  been  carefully  watched. 
When  he  was  told  the  story  of  Jesus  walking  on  the 
water,  he  innocently  asked  whether  Jesus'  mother 
scolded  him  for  getting  his  feet  wet.  Another  child, 
nearly  as  old,  was  in  the  habit  of  repeating  the  grace 
before  meals  for  the  family.  One  day,  after  finishing 
the  usual  prayer,  he  said,  with  conviction  that  he  had 
said  those  very  same  words  time  after  time,  that  he 
was  beginning  to  tire  of  them,  that  he  thought  God 
must  be  weary  of  hearing  monotonous  repetitions  of 
the  same  idea.     Principal  Russell  quotes  a  case  of  two 


136      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

boys  who  were  talking  about  the  rain.  J.  was  giving 
whatever  information  he  had  to  W.,  and  finally  said  : 
"When  the  clouds  are  rent  or  opened,  the  rain  drops 
out.  Rent  means  torn,  just  as  you  would  tear  your 
clothes."  W.,  after  thinking  for  a  time,  exclaimed : 
"  I  should  think  God's  mother  would  get  tired  mend- 
ing." I  remember  a  girl,  an  only  child,  in  very  good 
circumstances  and  much  petted,  whom  I  was  treating 
for  typhoid  fever.  Her  mother  had  been  telling  her 
of  God's  great  love ;  that  even  the  sparrows,  insig- 
nificant as  they  are,  were  included  in  it.  The  child 
retorted  quietly  :  "  Don't  you  think  that  God  spends 
too  much  time  on  sparrows  }  If  He  gave  a  little  more 
attention  to  me,  possibly  I  shouldn't  have  to  go  for 
a  whole  month  without  a  bit  of  real,  solid  food." 
Another  case  is  that  of  a  girl  of  about  eleven,  an 
unusually  naive  child.  Several  men  were  sitting  about 
the  room,  after  dinner,  discussing  the  Single  Tax 
theory.  One,  in  the  course  of  his  remarks,  said : 
"There  is  not  a  spot  on  this  footstool,"  etc.,  etc. 
The  little  girl,  who  was  sitting  on  my  knee,  whis- 
pered, "What  footstool?"  As  quietly,  I  explained 
that  he  referred  to  the  earth  as  the  footstool  of  God. 
"O-h-h,"  muttered  the  child,  in  astonishment.  "What 
long  legs  ! "  Her  face  was  perfectly  grave ;  not  for 
a  moment  did  she  think  of  irreverence.  The  sug- 
gested idea  was  that  God  must  be  an  exceedingly 
big  man. 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  1 37 

Any  one  who  has  been  much  with  children  can  multi- 
ply such  instances  indefinitely  ;  they  are  part  of  their 
daily  experience.  They  show  how  very  far  from  the 
possibility  of  a  helpful  and  elevating  conception  of 
truly  religious  life  children  are.  It  is  extremely  doubt- 
ful whether  they  are  capable  of  anything  better  than 
a  travesty  on  matters  of  really  spiritual  import.  And 
whatever  attempts  one  makes  to  impose  upon  them  a 
system  that  is  beyond  them  and  to  which  they  cannot 
naturally  be  amenable  must  necessarily  end  in  distor- 
tions. Such  a  result  is  not  only  deplorable  in  itself,  but 
also  leads  to  misconceptions  which  in  later  life  inevi- 
tably tend  to  lower  in  their  estimation  the  value  of 
religion  and  the  claims  which  it  makes.  It  stands  to 
reason  that  when  a  child  comes  to  realize  the  crudeness 
of  his  early  beliefs,  that  he  has  been  fed  upon  ideas 
which  while  they  were  represented  to  hold  all  holiness 
and  precious  truth  really  contain  many  germs  and  cir- 
cumstances of  fabled  life,  of  error,  of  superstition,  —  it 
stands  to  reason,  I  say,  that  under  such  conditions  his  / 
belief  in  the  whole  system  must  be  shaken.  He  cannot 
avoid  looking  at  it  as  a  means  of  temporary  control,  as 
a  thing  which  may  be  temporarily  useful  in  controlling 
the  passing  exuberance  of  childish  waywardness  ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  it  must  be  hard  for  him  to  see  in 
it  the  vital  truth,  the  active  principles  upon  which 
it  ought  to  rest.  And  while  this  is  unquestionably 
unfortunate,  it  would   doubtless   be   even  more  so  for 


138  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

him  to  continue  these  beliefs,  which  he  was  able  to 
feel  as  a  child,  into  the  time  of  manhood.  We  uncon- 
sciously feel  that  the  beliefs  of  these  two  times  are 
radically  different  from  each  other,  and  this  alone 
would  be  sufficient  to  prove  that  what  we  teach  our 
children  is  wrong,  that  it  must  be  overthrown,  that 
we  consider  them  incapable  of  participating  in  what 
seems  a  true  and  rational  system  of  religious  faith.  If 
they  are  to  have  any  such  code  at  all,  it  must  be  one 
which  is  just  as  true  for  their  early  as  their  later 
years.  And  so  long  as  this  is  impossible,  so  long  as 
the  unripeness  of  their  minds  and  their  generally 
undeveloped  state  forbid  the  grasping  of  a  full-grown 
system,  then  something  else  which  has  more  of  sta- 
bility and  as  much  of  disciplinary  features  should  take 
the  unfilled  place. 

As  one  would  logically  expect,  children  are  especially 
liable  to  the  various  excesses  which  result  from  the  per- 
turbed condition  of  their  unstable  emotional  and  imagi- 
native natures.  One  does  not  look  to  them  for  keen 
discrimination  between  what  is  reasonable  and  what  is 
unreasonable,  nor  for  an  exact  separation  of  illusive  sub- 
jective conditions  from  more  rational  objective  circum- 
stances. Concrete  cases  of  the  abuses  of  religious 
feeling  one  finds  easily  enough.  They  occur  in  every 
community  and  every  age,  wherever  a  child  is  found 
whose  sensitive  nature  receives  so  strong  an  impulse 
as  to  be  forced  out  of  the  line  of  ordinary  conduct. 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  139 

Such  instances  as  that  of  "  The  Welsh  Fasting  Girl,"  of 
children  who  believe  that  they  are  called  upon  to  show 
some  miraculous  power  of  divine  intervention,  as  that 
of  Bernadette  Soubirous,  who  not  many  years  ago 
founded  the  wonder-working  shrine  at  Lourdes,  The 
case  of  this  child  while  not  more  remarkable  in  its  gene- 
sis than  that  of  many  others,  is  interesting  on  account 
of  the  widespread  results  of  her  peculiar  mental  con- 
dition. She  was  a  plain,  simple  village  maid,  of  a 
strongly  mystical  cast  of  mind,  whose  circumstances 
were  the  usual  ones  of  her  class.  She  had  heard  much 
about  saints  and  miracles  and  was  deeply  impressed  by 
the  stories  about  them. 

One  day  she  went  about  her  usual  duty  of  gather- 
ing wood.  On  the  way  she  had  to  cross  a  stream, 
and  began  to  take  off  her  stockings.  As  she  stooped 
down  she  became  conscious  of  a  presence  that  suddenly 
made  itself  manifest  before  her,  and  when  she  regarded 
it  fully  she  saw  a  wonderfully  beautiful  woman  whom  she 
knew  immediately  to  be  the  Virgin.  The  brilliant  love- 
liness of  the  figure  was  beyond  her  powers  of  descrip- 
tion or  even  full  recognition.  It  was,  as  she  thought, 
superhuman,  God-like.  The  girl  fell  upon  her  knees 
and  worshiped  in  adoration.  At  later  times  she  again 
saw  and  even  spoke  to  the  apparition.  Her  relatives 
and  friends  at  first  ridiculed  her  accounts,  and  even 
tried  to  persuade  her  that  she  was  deceiving  herself  as 
well  as  trying  to  deceive  them,  that   she   saw  visions 


140       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  dreamed  dreams.  But  Bernadette  knew  better ; 
she  was  as  certain  of  the  Virgin's  visit  as  she  was  of 
her  own  existence,  as  she  was  of  the  divine  command 
laid  upon  her  to  build  a  church.  And  finally  her  faith 
was  rewarded  by  full  belief.  For  the  vision  came  to 
her  at  last  in  the  presence  of  her  mother  and  some 
neighbors.  The  child  fell  upon  her  knees,  with  clasped 
hands  and  raised  eyes,  her  face  lit  up  with  the  light 
of  ecstacy.  Although  the  attending  witnesses  saw 
nothing  but  a  kneeling  girl  with  a  glorified  face,  they 
felt  sure  that  the  change  in  her  must  have  been  the 
work  of  a  divine  power.  After  that  everything  was 
plain ;  belief  bred  belief ;  credulity  like  a  contagion 
infected  almost  every  one  it  touched,  and  the  world 
has  become  familiar  with  Bernadette's  holy  spring  and 
its  associated  miracles. 

The  spectacle  of  praying,  fasting,  ecstatic,  exalted 
children  is  not  rare  ;  nor  is  it  rare  to  see  them  afflicted 
with  various  emotional  derangements  which  one  can 
trace  to  disturbances  more  or  less  directly  attributable 
to  premature  religious  excitement.  Such  efforts  are,  of 
course,  to  be  deplored.  But  it  is  just  as  sad  to  see 
these  irresponsible  persons  forced  into  the  most  solemn 
covenants,  the  sacredness  of  which  they  are  totally  un- 
able to  comprehend.  Even  at  twelve,  thirteen  and 
fourteen  years,  the  age  at  which  children  are  commonly 
confirmed,  the  imposition  of  obligations  and  the  accom- 
panying eliciting  of  promises  that  are  supposed  to  rest 


THE  PLACE  OF   RELIGION  I4I 

upon  a  foundation  of  intelligent  understanding  are  not, 
to  say  the  least,  a  serious  preparation  for  a  useful  and 
beautiful  life.  For  no  ordinary  boy  or  girl  can  at  such 
a  time  know  the  meaning  of  the  ceremonies  at  which 
he  assists,  he  cannot  understand  the  foundation  upon 
which  they  stand  nor  the  length  and  breadth  of  them. 
He  subscribes  to  the  required  formulas  in  much  the 
same  way  that  he  would  take  part  in  the  commence- 
ment exercises  of  his  school,  or  in  any  function  which 
has  the  surroundings  of  pomp  and  circumstance,  backed 
up  by  the  commendation  of  friends  and  relatives. 
When  in  later  years  he  attains  the  age  of  fuller  under- 
standing and  discretion,  he  cannot  possibly  feel  more 
reverently  and  think  more  highly  of  a  system  which 
extorted  promises  from  him  at  a  time  when,  swayed  by 
considerations  of  emulation,  example  and  obedience,  he 
vowed  to  be  and  do  things  the  meaning  of  which  he 
knew  not.  Such  a  course,  instead  of  making  loyal  and 
zealous  communicants  and  adherents,  is  more  apt  to 
render  them  lukewarm  and  antagonistic.  In  place  of 
open-hearted  and  reverential  believers  who  feel  in  every 
fibre  of  their  being  the  conviction  and  truth  of  their 
faith,  in  place  of  inspired  adherents  whose  lives  repre- 
sent the  essential  excellence  of  a  prayer,  one  commonly 
sees  bodies  of  men  and  women  in  whose  allegiance  to 
creed  social  considerations,  worldly  considerations,  and 
reasons  of  inertia  have  an  unfortunately  large  share. 
There  is  a  place  for  a  related  training  of  children : 


142  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

that  of  morals.  That  is  the  proper  sphere  in  which 
they  can  normally  and  healthfully  be  led  as  well  to 
their  own  advantage  as  that  of  the  community.  For 
them  especially  is  the  remark  true,  that  conduct  is 
three-fourths  of  life.  They  come  upon  the  world's 
scene  in  a  condition  of  almost  neutral  plasticity.  They 
may  have  various  inherited  leanings  and  predispositions 
which,  if  allowed  unimpeded  growth,  would  doubtless 
turn  them  in  definite  directions.  But  the  organization 
of  family  and  social  life  does  not  permit  unimpeded 
growth  of  any  characteristics.  The  whole  tendency  is 
a  modifying  one,  a  tendency  towards  a  certain  common 
similarity.  This  tendency  varies  with  the  peculiar  con- 
stitution of  the  child's  immediate  environment,  so  that 
we  finally  have  the  problem  of  a  mass  of  more  or  less 
dimly  inherited  leanings  combined  with  a  particular  set 
of  surroundings  —  the  whole  of  which  goes  to  make  up 
the  person  as  he  grows  into  adult  life.  One  of  the 
things  which  bring  out  the  weak  spots  in  the  combina- 
tion is  the  fact  of  a  certain  indefiniteness  in  our  moral 
life,  a  lack  of  directness  and  steadfastness  which  chil- 
dren appreciate  very  keenly.  For  they  learn  conduct 
in  the  same  way  as  .they  come  to  know  relations  in 
space  or  the  qualities  of  physical  bodies,  that  is,  by  the 
experience  of  unconscious  absorption.  Thus  they  real- 
ize gradually,  and  I  may  say  insidiously,  that  there  is  a 
disparity  between  teaching  in  morals  and  conduct  in 
their  daily  life,  that  ideals,  which  are  not  by  any  means 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  1 43 

acted  out  by  those  who  pretend  to  advocate  them,  are 
placed  before  them  as  final.  To  say  that  we  should 
give  our  coat  to  him  who  takes  our  cloak  is  all  very 
well  if  we  follow  the  idea  to  its  logical  termination. 
But  it  falls  far  short  of  having  good  effect  when  we 
seek  by  every  possible  means  to  hunt  down  and  punish 
the  taker.  To  say  that  we  should  try  by  all  odds  to  do 
unto  others  as  we  would  have  them  do  unto  us  is  very 
fine,  so  long  as  we  do  not,  by  contrary  conduct,  give 
the  lie  to  the  teaching.  To  say  that  the  poor,  on  ac- 
count of  their  poverty,  have  a  better  chance  of  salvation 
than  the  rich  smacks  strongly  of  virtue.  But  the  anti- 
climax comes  with  crushing  force  when  children  every 
day  of  their  lives  see  the  people  who  preach  the  doc- 
trine bending  the  ready  hinges  of  their  knees  before 
men  of  wealth  that  power  may  come  with  crawling. 
In  short,  a  large  part  of  ethical  teaching  is  purely 
didactic,  does  not  embody  actual  practice  in  life,  and 
therefore  children  receive  it  more  as  they  receive  ab- 
stract propositions  than  as  living  facts. 

An  easily  apprehended  reason  why  children's  moral 
training  should  consist  largely  of  applied  ethics  is  the 
fact  that  they  understand  and  assimilate  concrete  results 
much  sooner  than  the  theoretical  rules  which  underlie 
them.  The  growth  of  the  brain  is  such  that  the  parts 
of  the  cerebrum  which  have  to  do  with  the  elaboration 
of  abstract  matter  is  very  slow,  is  about  the  last  to 
reach  fruition.     One  may  not  expect  children  to  have 


144      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

\  reasonable  conviction,  but  one  may  be  sure  that  they 
I  will  readily  enough  follow  repeated  examples.  There- 
fore one  must  necessarily  believe  that  all  such  abstract 
matter  is  not  only  absorbed  with  the  greatest  difficulty, 
but  also  is  most  easily  distorted.  There  must  be  a 
constant  atmosphere  of  the  moral  life  which  the  child 
is  supposed  to  have.  From  this  atmosphere  will  come 
much  better  results  than  from  any  amount  of  teaching 
to  which  he  may  be  subjected.  The  matter  comes 
down  to  a  question  of  direct  responsibility  of  the  child's 
parents  and  connections,  for  they  are  the  patterns 
which  are  most  closely  followed,  simply  and  plainly 
because  they  are  the  models  which  childish  imitative- 
ness  must  surely  follow.  It  is  only  necessary  to  re- 
member that  the  order  of  development  in  very  young 
children  is  first  of  all  the  automatic  ganglion  centres 
of  the  viscera,  of  the  heart  and  of  the  lungs ;  then  the 
spinal  cord  controlling  the  movement  of  the  limbs ; 
then  the  centres  of  sensation ;  and  last  of  all,  the 
centres  of  ideation,  of  thought,  of  will.  These  last- 
named  centres  do  not  reach  their  full  development 
until  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-five  years  of  age.  Their 
action  before  that  time  is  not  fully  reliable.  And  pro- 
cesses which  are  dependent  upon  them  must  be  con- 
sequently incomplete.  But  the  domain  of  conduct, 
especially  in  young  persons,  is  generally  not  so  much 
the  realm  of  thought  as  of  imitation  and  example,  while 
f  that  of   religious  conviction   is,  or  should  be,  one  of 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGION  I45 

thought,  judgment,  not  a  blind  following  of  what  some- 
body else  has  said  or  felt. 

As  children  learn  conduct  by  direct  imitation,  they  \ 
should  have  their  models  constantly  before  them,  and  f 
these  must  be  supplied  by  the  persons  who  help  to 
form  their  environment.  It  will  not  do  to  act  in  one 
way  and  instruct  them  to  act  in  another ;  to  have  one 
standard  for  oneself  and  quite  another  for  them.  This 
is  what  parents  and  guardians  with  more  or  less  pre- 
tence regularly  do.  Children,  with  their  acute,  uncon- 
scious susceptibility  to  influence,  notice  the  discrepancy  - 
with  the  greatest  ease.  And  naturally  they  do  not 
take  the  prescribed  rules  in  too  serious  a  light.  They 
openly  regard  them  either  as  purely  theoretical  and 
of  little  importance,  or  else  as  ideas  which  outwardly 
they  must  respect,  but  inwardly  may  with  safety  ignore. 
The  standard  of  domestic  virtues,  of  self-restraint,  of 
amiability,  is  none  too  high ;  by  such  means  it  is  kept 
conveniently  low.  At  the  same  time,  the  formation 
of  the  general  character  advances  with  an  equal  pace 
and  is  similarly  retarded.  Worldly  wisdom,  so-called, 
which  too  often  is  merely  a  synonym  for  insincerity, 
deceit,  or  even  dishonesty,  is  early  noticed  and  too 
easily  assumed.  In  a  few  years  so  much  harm  is  done 
that  only  the  most  strenuous  exertions  can  undo  it. 
But  these  are  not  supplied ;  on  the  contrary,  the  old 
ideas  are  with  greater  force  than  ever  insisted  upon 
as  essential  to  social  and  business  success. 


146       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

At  an  early  age  the  matter  is  in  all  likelihood  made 
worse  by  the  teaching  of  some  one  of  the  various  creeds. 
What  the  child  is  most  impressed  by  is  the  part  of  it 
yWhich  includes  an  element  of  mythology,  or  an  element 
of  terror,  or  an  element  of  narrative  interest.  His 
fears  as  well  as  his  faculty  of  enjoyment  are  played 
upon ;  his  teachers  seek  to  lead  him  through  the  deep 
mists  of  superstition  into  the  clear  air  of  a  reasonable 
and  ennobling  belief.  How  far  they  succeed  Galton 
testifies  to  when  he  laments  that  what  the  world  needs 
is  not  so  much  a  greater  intellectual  progress  as  a 
better  growth  of  character.  Strangely  enough,  educa- 
tors feel  most  anxious  to  help  along  the  former  rather 
than  the  latter;  and  in  this  anxiety  they  have,  by 
experience,  discovered  certain  rules  and  laws  of  the 
child  mind.  One  of  them  is  that  practical  examples 
and  concrete  instances  in  a  scheme  of  instruction  come 
before  the  theoretical  and  abstract  generalizations  called 
rules  upon  which  they  are  based.  There  is  hardly  a 
teacher  of  arithmetic  in  the  land  so  uninformed  as  not 
to  have  heard  of  this  idea,  even  if  he  may  not  use  it, 
and  there  are  almost  as  few  who  disagree  with  it. 
Nevertheless,  a  parity  of  reasoning  in  religious  instruc- 
tion is  clear.  And,  in  this  connection,  there  is  an  even 
greater  necessity  for  the  application. 
.-  Applied  ethics  represents  the  concrete  example; 
creed  religion  may  be  taken  as  the  philosophical  gen- 
eralization.    Such   is    the    order    in   which   they  fall ; 


THE  PLACE  OF   RELIGION  1 47 

and  so  placed,  the  value  of  both  of  them  is  un- 
doubtedly great.  When  a  person  has  arrived  at  the 
age  of  independent  thought,  when  he  is  past  the 
time  of  the  arbitrary  support  which  a  system  of  real 
morals  gives,  then  he  is  fit  for  the  more  philosophical, 
more  intellectual  part  which  purely  religious  belief 
in  its  best  sense  ought  to  bring.  In  the  meanwhile, 
parents  and  guardians  must  know  that  they  are  directly 
responsible  for  the  ethical  conduct  and  the  moral 
status  of  their  little  ones.  Their  every  act  has  its 
bearing,  just  as  every  touch  of  a  potter's  hand  has 
some  little  share  in  the  final  result  of  his  work.  The 
constant  repetition  of  such  acts  goes  to  make  up  a 
child's  personality.  Doubtless  such  repeated  acts  count 
for  more  in  the  long  run  than  isolated  examples  of  a 
virtue  that  may  be  great  but  is  not  a  matter  of  every- 
day occurrence.  The  earth  is  devastated  by  a  flood, 
it  is  strengthened  and  made  fruitful  by  countless 
minute  raindrops. 


CHAPTER   VII 

The  Value  of  the  Child  as  a  Witness  in  Suits 
AT  Law 

It  is  a  rather  strange  fact  that  courts  of  justice, 
whose  administration  is  one  of  the  most  important 
functions  of  society,  should  have  shown  such  a  variety 
of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  right  value  of  children's 
evidence.  There  are  so  many  cases  where  such  evi- 
dence is  of  the  most  vital  importance  that  the  need 
of  settling  the  question  once  for  all  is  undoubtedly 
great.  Nevertheless,  authorities  on  Evidence,  pos- 
sibly feeling  how  shifty  the  matter  is,  have  given  it 
a  wide  berth.  The  subject  has  very  many  times 
come  up  for  discussion,  but  has  never  been  settled. 
The  drift  of  opinion  of  to-day  is  somewhat  farther 
advanced  than  in  former  times ;  but  the  advance  has 
been  wavering,  tentative,  not  based  on  a  solid  founda- 
tion of  knowledge.  As  far  back  as  1779,  ^^^  judges 
in  R.  vs.  Brazier,  i  Leach,  Cr.  Cas.  199,  held  that 
"an  infant,  though  under  the  age  of  seven  years, 
may  be  sworn  in  a  criminal  prosecution,  provided 
such    infant    appears,    on    strict    examination    by   the 

148 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  I49 

Court,  to  possess  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  consequences  of  an  oath,  for  there  is  no  precise 
or  fixed  rule  as  to  the  time  within  which  infants  are 
excluded  from  giving  evidence ;  but  their  admissibil- 
ity depends  upon  the  sense  and  reason  they  entertain 
of  the  danger  and  impiety  of  falsehood,  which  is  to 
be  collected  from  their  answers  to  questions  pro- 
pounded to  them  by  the  Court,"  Here  the  crucial 
idea  is  that  the  evidence  is  more  or  less  reliable,  not 
so  much  on  account  of  the  child's  capability  to  see, 
think,  and  narrate  clearly  and  honestly,  but  merely 
on  the  ground  of  having  enough  religious  or  moral 
training  to  appreciate  the  "danger  and  impiety  of 
falsehood." 

The  point  is  still  more  strongly  stated  in  Best's  work 
on  Evidence  (I.  241).  This  authority  lays  down  the 
rule  that  "  when  a  material  witness  in  a  criminal  case  is 
an  infant  of  tender  years,  the  practice  has  been  for  the 
Judge  to  examine  him,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining 
whether  he  is  aware  of  the  nature  and  obligation  of  an 
oath,  and  the  consequences  of  perjury.  And  if  it  is 
ascertained  before  the  trial  that  a  material  witness  is  of 
tender  years,  and  devoid  of  religious  knowledge,  the 
Court  will,  in  its  discretion,  postpone  the  trial,  and 
direct  that  he  shall  in  the  meantime  receive  due  instruc- 
tion on  the  subject."  That  this  rule  was  not  always 
followed  is  clear  enough,  for  the  author  shortly  after- 
wards cites  a  case,  where  Alberson,  B.,  refused  to  post- 


I50  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

pone  a  trial  for  the  purpose  of  giving  religious 
instruction  to  a  witness  of  twelve  years  of  age,  since 
"  all  the  Judges  were  of  opinion  that  it  was  an  incorrect 
proceeding ;  that  it  was  like  preparing  or  getting  up  a 
witness  for  a  particular  purpose,  and  on  that  ground 
was  very  objectionable."  Another  authority.  Green- 
leaf,  makes  a  similar  rule  (Evidence,  I.  367) :  "  If  the 
child,  being  a  principal  witness,  appears  not  yet  suffi- 
ciently instructed  in  the  nature  of  an  oath,  the  Court 
will,  in  its  discretion,  put  off  the  trial,  that  this  may  be 
done."  This  seems  fairly  definite,  except  the  phrase 
"sufficiently  instructed  in  the  nature  of  an  oath." 
Here  the  element  of  religious  training  comes  up  once 
more,  and  is  so  really  misty  that  it  is  bound  to  cause 
disagreement.  Greenleaf  proves  this  almost  immedi- 
ately after  stating  his  rule,  by  citing  the  case  of  R.  vs. 
Williams  (7  C.  and  P.  320).  Here  he  states  that  Patter- 
son, J.,  in  rejecting  as  a  witness  a  child  of  eight  years 
of  age,  said  that  he  "must  be  satisfied  that  the  child 
felt  the  binding  obligation  of  an  oath  from  the  general 
course  of  her  religious  education,  and  that  the  effect  of 
the  oath  upon  the  conscience  should  arise  from  reli- 
gious feelings  of  a  permanent  nature,  and  not  merely 
from  instructions,  confined  to  the  nature  of  an  oath, 
recently  communicated  for  the  purpose  of  the  particu- 
lar trial."  As  if  to  show  how  easily  such  rules  as 
above  quoted  may  be  overturned,  the  Code  of  Criminal 
Procedure  of  the   State   of   New   York,    1897,  makes 


VALUE  OF   THE  CHILD  AS   A  WITNESS  151 

some  radical  changes ;  it  speakes  of  a  greater  age  as 
necessary,  and  attempts  to  eliminate  the  religious  fac- 
tors. "Whenever  in  any  criminal  proceedings  a  child 
actually  or  apparently  under  the  age  of  twelve  years, 
offered  as  a  witness,  does  not,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Court  or  Magistrate,  understand  the  nature  of  an  oath, 
the  evidence  of  such  a  child  may  be  received  though 
not  given  under  oath,  if,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Court  or 
Magistrate  such  child  is  possessed  of  sufficient  intelli- 
gence to  justify  the  reception  of  the  evidence." 

All  through  the  course  of  these  changes  one  can  see 
the  predominance  of  the  religious  idea,  and  until  very 
late  days,  the  usual  grounds  for  rejecting  the  evidence 
of  children  were  (i)  want  of  religious  knowledge, 
(2)  want  of  religious  belief,  (3)  refusal  to  comply  with 
religious  forms.  Evidently  jurists  recognized  the  unre- 
liable nature  of  the  communications,  and  while  not 
knowing  exactly  where  to  lay  the  blame,  nevertheless 
tried  to  erect  some  sort  of  barrier  to  limit  the  evil. 
This  is  one  reason  why  so  many  contradictions  in  rul- 
ings, of  which  there  is  a  wealth,  exist.  For  instance, 
in  the  case  of  R.  vs.  Holmes,  quoted  in  Taylor's  Evi- 
dence, the  presiding  magistrate  considered  a  certain 
child  competent  to  testify,  because  she  told  the  Judge 
that  she  said  her  prayers,  and  thought  it  wrong  to  lie. 
On  the  other  hand,  Wharton  quotes  a  case  of  a  girl 
three  years  older,  whose  testimony  was  rejected  because 
she  knew  nothing  of  future  rewards  and  punishments. 


152  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

The  strangest  part  of  the  subject  —  for  as  a  rule  the  law 
does  not  lack  for  safeguards  against  most  of  its  enact- 
ments —  is  that  no  serious  attempts  have  been  made  to 
find  out  why  and  how  far  this  sort  of  evidence  is  not 
trustworthy ;  and  if  this  had  been  done,  there  would  be 
no  need  for  citing  such  well-known  cases  as  that  of  Dr. 
Laurent,  where  a  boy  of  thirteen  years  accused  his 
father  and  twelve  other  men  of  a  murder  which  they 
clearly  did  not  commit ;  nor  such  a  case  as  was  recently 
reported  in  the  daily  press,  where,  in  a  suit  for  divorce, 
two  little  sisters  gave  diametrically  opposite  accounts  of 
the  domestic  relations  of  their  parents,  although  the 
only  active  cause  for  an  utter  disagreement  in  testi- 
mony was  a  difference  in  sympathies.  The  father's 
partisan  saw  the  mother's  acts  in  an  unfavorable  light, 
while  the  account  of  the  other  child  entirely  reversed 
the  relations  of  praise  and  blame.  Still,  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  little  ones'  honest  wish  to  tell  the 
truth.  The  trouble  lay  not  in  their  intentions,  but 
rather  in  their  particular  manner  of  judging.  This  last- 
mentioned  case,  instead  of  being  remarkable,  is  really 
what  one  ought  to  expect,  because  a  truthful  and  faith- 
ful narration  of  events  or  a  condition  is  no  easy  matter, 
even  for  many  adults ;  for  a  child  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult,  and  in  many  cases  impossible. 

There  are  many  reasons,  looking  to  the  mental 
and  physical  condition  of  the  child,  why  this  is  so. 
As  was  seen  in  the  first  chapter,  the  development  of 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 53 

the  brain  is  very  slow,  and  even  after  its  gross  form 
develops,  a  long  time  must  elapse  before  the  finer 
structure  becomes  complete.  It  is  by  this  finer  struc- 
ture that  its  highest  work  is  done.  This  applies  es- 
pecially to  the  intermediate  regions  in  the  cortex, 
called  the  association  centres,  where  the  various  func-  ^  ^  ^  , 
tional  areas  meet,  and  where  the  characteristic  mem- 
ories are  stored  up.  So  long  as  these  centres  are  | 
unripe,  and  they  certainly  are  in  such  condition  until  | 
puberty  at  least,  the  ordinary  impressions  do  not 
become  sufficiently  marked,  nor  can  they  be  fully 
recognized  and  expressed  by  the  child.  It  is  much 
on  the  plan  of  a  series  or  network  of  communicating 
canals.  If  the  trenches  are  completed  only  in  sepa- 
rate spots,  no  steady  stream  of  water  can  flow 
through  them,  and  no  matter  how  well  the  work  in 
these  various  areas  has  been  done,  the  full  results  of 
the  undertaking  do  not  come  into  existence  until 
every  connection  is  finished. 

One  constantly  sees  proof  of  this  in  the  child's 
clumsiness,  which  is  apparent  in  mind  as  well  as  in 
body.  It  is  only  after  months  of  trying  that  he  is 
able  to  use  knife  and  fork  gracefully  and  efficiently; 
it  is  only  after  years  of  effort  that  he  is  able  to  write 
readily,  to  perform  many  of  the  most  ordinary  acts 
of  life.  One  expects  this,  and  so  one  does  not  notice 
it.  One  does  not  stop  to  think  that  what  he  does 
well  is  what  does  not  require  a  careful  self-conscious- 


154  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ness  or  concentration.  Moreover,  he  is  helped  by  his 
ignorance ;  he  cannot  fear  that  of  which  he  knows 
naught.  Fear  does  not  make  him  cautious,  and 
therefore  correspondingly  incompetent.  His  success- 
ful efforts  are  first  confined  to  the  purely  somatic 
functions  and  physical  acts;  after  them,  by  a  long 
distance,  comes  intelligent  mental  effort. 

Now  a  word  is  a  more  or  less  complex  idea  com- 
posed of  more  than  one  sort  of  image.  The  simplest 
word  has  a  host  of  associations  which  require  for 
their  proper  tabulation  considerable  time  and  experi- 
ence. As  an  example,  take  the  word  milk.  This  will 
bring  to  mind  the  ideas  of  fluidity,  of  food,  of  the 
bottle  from  which  the  child  has  taken  it,  of  color,  of 
cows,  of  farm  life,  of  wagons,  and  horses,  and  so  on 
to  an  indefinite  extent.  Other  words  are  similarly 
multiple  in  their  concepts  and  suggest  many  diverse 
images.  In  an  immature  condition,  where  the  effects 
of  experience  and  practice  are  small,  it  is  difficult  to 
keep  these  various  concepts  in  their  proper  relations. 
Like  a  wagon  wheel  slipping  into  a  rut  the  mental 
impulse  deviates  from  its  path.  Consequently  any 
certain  impressions  may  be  distorted  to  widely  re- 
moved conclusions.  So  long  as  there  is  not  a  direct 
I  connection  between  a  concept  and  its  rightful  expres- 
;  sion,  no  serious  reliance  should  be  placed  upon  the 
i  person's  testimony.  This  is  exactly  the  condition  of 
children.     The    difficulty    of    learning    each    separate 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 55 

word  is  really  great,  but  after  this  is  done,  the  task 
of  learning  simple  combinations  still  remains,  and  as 
the  child  grows  older,  the  necessity  for  increasing  his 
vocabulary  advances  at  a  greater  rate.  The  acquisi- 
tion of  this  knowledge  comes  in  a  slow  and  fragmen- 
tary manner.  For  a  long  time  it  resembles  a  sort 
of  patchwork,  and  not  until  after  the  lapse  of  years 
does  it  become  homogeneous.  During  all  this  time 
not  only  are  the  child's  concepts  imperfectly  formed, 
but  also  his  expressions  of  them  must  be  still  more 
imperfect.  This  is  so  true  that  unconsciously  one 
acts  upon  it,  and  is  much  astonished  if  a  child  ex- 
presses himself  well  and  clearly,  while  on  the  other 
hand,  one  is  amused  and  tolerant  of  grotesque  expres- 
sions. In  fact,  most  of  the  quaint  and  witty  sayings  | 
of  childhood  are  never  intended  as  such,  and  the  laugh-; 
which  they  provoke  is  as  astonishing  to  the  little  one  ( 
as  the  remark  in  question  is  to  the  auditor.  They 
should  be  regarded  merely  as  tentative  efforts  after 
ordinary  expression,  and  the  humorous  part  results 
from  the  child's  misapprehension  of  normal  relations. 
Proofs  of  the  truth  of  this  we  meet  every  day,  and 
an  occurrence  in  my  own  experience  is  a  case  in  point. 
I  was  walking  one  day  with  a  little  girl,  past  an  oyster 
restaurant,  on  the  window  of  which  was  displayed  the 
sign,  "  Families  supplied."  The  meaning  to  an  adult 
is,  of  course,  perfectly  plain ;  but  with  the  child  it 
was  quite  different.     Immediately  after  reading  it,  she 


156  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

clapped  her  hands,  and  cried  out :  "  O !  let's  go  in  and 
get  a  little  baby.  I've  wanted  a  baby  brother  for  a 
long  time."  Again,  another  case  is  one  quoted  by 
Principal  Russell.  It  was  a  case  of  a  boy  of  ten  years 
who  thought  that  when  a  person  boarded  with  another, 
he  went  to  the  latter's  house,  and  pounded  with  his 
fists  on  the  wall  of  a  room.  Another  child  of  nearly 
eight  years  of  age,  wrote  his  name  with  the  title  "  mas- 
ter" before  it.  On  being  asked  the  meaning  of  the 
prefix,  he  said,  "  That's  because  I'm  master  of  some- 
thing,—  my  dog."  It  must  be  remembered  that  these 
are  not  extreme  cases,  but  rather  such  as  happen  every 
day.  They  show  how  very  crudely  children  express 
themselves ;  how  far  away  from  having  and  expressing 
an  exact  idea  they  are.  Now,  if  so  much  difficulty 
opposes  them  in  single  words,  how  much  more  burden- 
some must  be  the  obstacles  in  trying  to  give  a  sus- 
tained and  truthful  narrative !  The  task  is  greater 
than  one  ought  to  expect  of  these  little  people. 

If  this  were  the  only  trouble,  it  would  be  great 
enough,  but  it  is  only  one  of  many.  The  most  ordi- 
nary things,  as  well  as  the  most  unusual,  lead  to 
misconceptions  that  may  give  rise  to  totally  false  in- 
terpretations. The  child  is  thus  in  danger  of  extract- 
ing a  meaning  from  conversations  or  events  that  is  not 
at  all  justified  by  the  circumstances.  His  report  of 
such  things  is  correspondingly  distorted.  I  remember 
showing  a  boy  how  to  look  through  a  microscope,  and 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A   WITNESS  1 5/ 

drew  his  attention  to  a  budding  yeast  plant  that  was 
fixed  on  the  slide.  Some  fancied  resemblance  caught 
his  eye,  and  later  on  I  was  astounded  at  hearing  him 
tell  his  father  that  he  had  seen  a  little  bit  of  a  goat 
through  the  instrument.  The  child  was  far  from  wish- 
ing to  deceive ;  he  was  simply  misled  by  an  imper- 
fect understanding  of  things,  which  could  never  have 
occurred  to  an  adult,  even  to  one  who  knew  nothing 
about  the  yeast  plant. 

One  of  the  hardest  things  for  children  is  to  concen-  U  ^^ 
trate  their  thoughts  and  attention.  They  are  easily  . 
distracted  from  any  matter  in  hand,  and  besides,  com-  '^ 
monly  observe  things  very  inaccurately.  Like  the  flit- 
ting of  wind-blown  leaves,  their  thoughts  and  glances 
swing  this  way  and  that,  resting  for  a  short  time,  and 
very  lightly,  on  many  unconnected  places.  The  infer- 
ences which  they  naturally  draw  must  therefore  be 
false.  Things  widely  diverse  in  their  constitution,  but 
having  some  trivial  thing  in  common,  will  appear  to 
their  unobserving  eyes  as  similar ;  and,  for  instance, 
they  would  claim  decidedly  to  identify  a  man  simply 
because  some  easily  marked  characteristic,  such  as 
baldness,  struck  them  as  familiar.  Here  one  can 
plainly  see  the  characteristic  workings  of  poorly  con- 
nected association  centres.  For  related  reasons  they:  /- 
observe  things  poorly,  and  though  they  look  with  seem-! 
ingly  sufficient  intentness,  nevertheless,  they  do  not' 
see  enough.     Their  reasoning   consequently   is  faulty, 


•^ 


r) 


158      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  they  ascribe  causes  to  phenomena  that  strike  us 
in  commonplace  circumstances  as  ludicrous.  Thus  a 
boy  of  ten  and  one-half  years,  gravely  explaining  why 
dogs  kept  their  mouths  open,  said  that  it  was  due  to 
hunger,  and  that  in  this  way  the  animal  was  most 
ready  to  snatch  up  a  bit  of  food ;  and  another  child 
of  ten  years  announced  that  all  small  teachers  were 
cross,  while  tall  teachers  were  good-natured.  He  had 
drawn  this  general  conclusion  and  opinion  from  his 
experience  with  two  young  women,  who  formerly  had 
taught  him.  In  the  particular  connection  quoted, 
these  methods  of  forming  conclusions  are  of  little 
importance ;  but  when  they  are  translated  into  serious 
evidence,  which  is  bound  to  affect  other  people's  inter- 
ests, they  open  the  way  to  great  misconception  and 
injustice. 

Going  back  once  more  to  the  unripe  condition  which 
is  characteristic  of  the  youthful  brain,  one  finds  such 
things  perfectly  natural.  The  various  constituent  ele- 
ments of  the  adult  nervous  system  are  present,  but  in 
such  an  undeveloped  state  that  to  expect  complete 
responses  to  demands  made  upon  it,  would  be  just  as 
unreasonable  as  endeavoring  to  pay  off  a  large  indebt- 
edness with  a  small  capital.  When  ganglion  cells  are 
only  partially  formed,  when  their  prolongations  exist 
merely  in  a  rudimentary  form,  when  their  histological 
elements  are  in  part  lacking,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  conclude  that  functional  activity  is  likewise  affected. 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 59 

Thus  the  idea  that  children  naturally  tell  the  truth  ) 
is  in  itself  far  from  true.  To  say  that  "  children  and 
fools  don't  lie "  merely  means  that  they  have  not  so 
many  of  the  ulterior  reasons  for  deceit  that  actuate 
adults.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  natural  for  them 
spontaneously  to  tell  untruths.  In  addition  to  their 
physical  limitations,  they  have  deficiencies  in  experi- 
ence that  are  dangerous  to  seeing  and  telling  things 
correctly.  The  difficulties  of  ordinary  sight  are  over- 
come very  gradually  and  after  years  of  trial.  One  can 
appreciate  this  easily  enough  when  one  thinks  of  the 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  ordinary  or  upright  vision. 
The  human  eye  is  constructed  on  the  principle  of  a 
compound  lens,  and  the  resulting  vision  is  projected 
upon  the  retina  inverted.  A  person  looking  at  a 
chair  really  sees  it  upside-down,  and  the  time  which  ) 
is  necessary  to  learn  the  association  of  an  upright 
position  and  an  inverted  image  is  undoubtedly  great. 
The  process  is  so  elaborate  that  one,  thinking  about 
the  matter,  is  surprised  at  the  uniformly  fair  results 
that  adults  attain.  The  experience  comes  slowly,  and 
as  the  result  of  countless  movements  of  touching,  lift- 
ing and  moving.  The  partly  developed  brain  does 
not  act  logically,  and  has  to  learn  as  if  by  rote  the 
most  ordinary  facts  in  nature.  Little  by  little  such 
facts  are  assimilated,  little  by  little  the  child  emerges 
from  the  mists  which  envelop  his  early  faculties. 
Only  in  the  most  gradual  way  does  he  come  to  asso- 


l6o  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ciate  the  visual  impression  with  the  proper  relations 
of  the  object  in  space.  This  difficulty,  added  to  his 
limited  power  of  accurate  observation,  is  bound  to 
make  his  reports  unreliable.  This  disability  is  in- 
creased by  the  trouble  which  he  inevitably  encounters 
>  /  in  understanding  the  third  dimension.  For  a  long 
time,  he  practically  does  not  know  of  its  existence, 
and  even  when  he  learns  something  about  it,  he  uses 
the  knowledge  very  crudely.  The  existing  lack  of 
perspective  shows  itself  in  his  attempts  at  drawing, 
for,  outside  of  any  technical  knowledge,  he  is  unable, 
even  at  a  rather  mature  age,  to  see  the  difference 
between  flat  lines  and  those  drawn  in  projection. 

Growing  knowledge  of  size  and  position  brings  its 
penalties ;  he  measures  things  by  his  own  small  stand- 
ard, not  by  the  adult.  Things  seem  great,  even  for- 
midable to  him ;  his  imagination  is  deeply  impressed. 
The  idea  of  formidable  size  easily  changes  into  that 
of  the  grotesque,  —  especially  in  a  mind  that  is  igno- 
rant of  the  true  connection  between  cause  and  effect. 
That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  our  little  ones  so 
readily  incline  to  a  belief  in  ogres,  giants  and  mon- 
strous forms.  In  addition,  this  quality  falls  very  con- 
genially into  place  beside  that  of  irresponsibility. 
The  child  delights  in  what  to  us  is  unreal,  in  "make 
believe."  The  flights  of  fancy  conjure  up  other  and 
strange  worlds,  which  are  as  real  to  him  as  the  world 
about  him,  where  things  are  topsy-turvy.     Here  events 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  l6l 

come  in  strange  and  wonderful  ways ;  the  little  one 
becomes  a  hero  or  a  victim ;  he  encounters  experi- 
ences the  half  of  which  is  beyond  all  fact.  For  him 
there  is  no  hard  and  fast  limit ;  there  is  no  end  to 
what  is  possible.  The  fears  of  a  mythical  dragon 
oppress  him  just  as  much  as  a  real  danger;  and  ordi- 
nary things  inspire  the  same  emotions  as  the  grossest 
figments  of  the  imagination.  A  dream,  a  story,  or  a 
vision  started  by  some  fugitive  train  of  thought  is  as 
apt  to  induce  a  steadfast  belief,  to  which  he  will  hold 
with  the  fullest  force  of  conviction,  as  a  real  series 
of  actual  happenings  will  cause  in  an  adult.  I  know 
of  tales  of  severe  punishment  or  ill-treatment,  reported 
in  this  way  by  school-children  at  the  hands  of  teachers, 
which  investigation  proved  to  be  utterly  without  foun- 
dation. And  I  remember  accounts  of  pursuits  by 
wolves,  bears  and  griffins,  which  were  reputed  to  have 
occurred  in  the  streets  of  New  York,  told  to  me  with 
all  the  force  of  righteous  conviction.  Questioning, 
without  an  emphatic  statement  of  disbelief,  is  apt  to 
confirm  these  opinions,  with  the  result  that  a  child 
who  is  supposed  to  be  all  purity,  guilelessness  and 
truth,  may  accomplish  the  ends  of  a  hardened  per- 
jurer. But  so  easily  is  his  mind  influenced,  that  ex- 
pressed doubt  or  disapprobation  will  make  him  utterly 
repudiate  the  whole  story. 

A  characteristic  quality  of  childhood  that  is  capable 
of   causing  much   mischief   is   its   vanity.     The   child 

M 


1 62       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

regularly  imagines  himself  as  the  doer  of  great  and 
impossible  deeds,  as  the  holder  —  according  to  his 
lights  —  of  important  functions.  He  knows  nothing 
of  the  necessity  of  effort,  of  striving ;  he  associates 
the  desire  for  a  thing  with  the  immediate  fruition 
of  that  desire.  His  treatment  at  home  during  his 
very  young  childhood  helps  to  strengthen  the  ten- 
dency. His  experiences,  all  the  way  from  being  con- 
stantly called  a  "big  man,"  to  hearing  outlandish 
tales,  are  regularly  of  this  sort.  Very  rarely  does  one 
see  an  effort  made  to  develop  a  sense  of  proportion. 
Parents  and  attendants  feel  satisfied  if  by  cajolery  and 
by  flattery  the  child  makes  only  a  bearable  amount  of 
trouble.  They  know  that  by  such  means  they  can 
hold  his  attention  and  keep  him  quiet,  although  they 
are  thereby  far  from  improving  his  moral  condition. 
A  certain  amount  of  vanity  is  natural  to  every  one ; 
and  at  times  we  find  this  ordinary  amount  largely 
increased  in  occasional  persons,  who  should  be  regarded 
as  illustrations  of  the  persistence  of  youthful  types. 
Thus  one  hears  of  women  who  bind  and  maltreat 
themselves,  of  girls  who  write  love-letters  to  them- 
selves, and  thereon  base  a  story  of  a  fortunate  en- 
gagement to  marry ;  in  the  same  way,  and  with  as 
little  basis  in  fact,  children  will  at  times  recount  with 
every  show  of  truth  tales  of  happiness  or  unhappiness, 
of  kindness  or  abuse.  Here  again  they  may  have  no 
intention   to    make   others   bear   the   responsibility   of 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 63 

fancied  deeds ;  they  merely  feel  the  need  of  satisfy- 
ing their  vanity,  of  calling  attention  to  themselves, 
of  being  pitied  and  petted.  When  brought  into  a 
Court  of  Law,  such  traits  are  capable  of  working  un- 
told harm  —  even  of  wrecking  innocent  lives. 

Everybody  is  familiar  with  the  imitative  faculty  in 
children ;  every  one  knows  that  they  follow  closely  after 
examples  which  they  see  before  them.  Practically,  we 
know  that  this  is  a  fact,  and  theoretically,  it  is  as  it 
should  be.  All  young  creatures  must  be  imitative  in 
order  to  live,  and  no  one  would  expect  that  this  fac- 
ulty would  stop  short  at  any  exact  and  designated 
limits  of  safety.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  an 
active  tendency  to  ape  the  ways  and  manners  of  those 
about  them,  as  well  as  to  be  more  or  less  impressed 
by  a  startling  occurrence.  In  this  way  I  have  seen 
a  girl  of  twelve  years  counterfeit  exactly  all  the  symp- 
toms which  her  sister  showed  in  an  attack  of  hip- 
disease;  moreover,  I  was  not  certain  of  the  counterfeit 
nature  of  her  condition  until  the  administration  of  an 
anaesthetic,  after  which  no  deception  was  possible.  In 
the  small  things  of  life  the  force  of  this  faculty  is  con- 
stantly felt,  so  much  so  that  it  affects  the  most  funda- 
mental habits.  The  ideas  of  the  growing  child  are 
surely  thus  regulated,  so  much  indeed,  that  one  can  hardly 
speak  of  his  having  an  independent  mental  life  at  all. 
He  takes  his  tone  from  his  environment  just  as  surely 
as  he  acquires  his  speech  and  manner  of   expression. 


A 


1 64       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

To  a  large  extent  his  mind  is  a  blank,  an  untilled 
field,  and  the  impressions  made  upon  it  are  the  means 
of  cultivation.  In  so  far  as  he  is  developed  at  all  is 
he  thus  influenced.  Therefore  he  is  being  moulded 
every  day  and  every  hour ;  but  most  of  all  is  he  af- 
fected when  some  important  event  happens  which 
makes  him  incline  in  whatever  way  the  sympathies 
and  interests  of  those  about  him  dictate.  As  a  re- 
sult, quite  outside  of  the  question  of  honest  intentions, 
his  view-point  is  not  shaped  so  much  by  the  actual 
course  of  events  as  by  the  interpretation  which  those 
nearest  to  him  put  upon  them. 

That  element  in  making  evidence  trustworthy,  the 
realization  of  the  nature  and  obligation  of  an  oath,  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  to  make  sure  of  in  a  child's 
testimony.  Lawyers  have  insisted  upon  exacting  this 
without  knowing  positively  whether  the  child  were 
capable  of  it.  Whenever  in  the  conduct  of  a  cause  a 
doubt  arose,  it  was  in  relation  to  the  one  particular 
case  at  issue  rather  than  to  the  whole  body  of  cases. 
In  the  same  way,  some  question  may  have  arisen  con- 
cerning the  religious  training  of  the  one  child  on  the 
stand  rather  than  of  all  children  in  general;  and  an 
unfortunate  feature  of  the  matter  is,  that  attorneys, 
in  trying  to  have  a  child's  evidence  admitted  or  re- 
jected, are  apt  to  base  their  arguments,  not  on  some 
principle  of  impartial  truth,  but  merely  on  considera- 
tions   of    the    client's    interest.     But    without    doubt 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 65 

some  idea  of  the  fallibility  of  this  element  has  been 
prevalent  in  the  general  legal  mind,  for  almost  all 
cases  in  point  have  brought  out  objections  from  one 
side  or  the  other  against  the  testimony  of  such  wit- 
nesses. What  is  needed  is  a  full  and  definite  know- 
ledge of  the  reasons  why  a  child  is  unable  reliably  to 
fulfil  all  the  important  duties  of  a  witness.  To  real- 
ize the  nature  and  obligation  of  an  oath  requires  more 
than  an  understanding  of  certain  religious  forms,  or 
even  of  religious  ideas.  Such  ideas,  as  was  shown  in 
the  last  chapter  (Chapter  VI.),  exist  as  a  mood,  as  a 
more  or  less  artificial  condition.  The  binding  formula 
of  swearing  a  very  youthful  witness  cannot  be  any 
greater  than  —  even  if  it  is  as  great  as  —  an  ordinary 
injunction  against  lying.  For  one  cannot  expect  him 
to  be  held  by  reasons  which  are  beyond  him.  His  idea 
of  the  Deity  is  decidedly  anthropomorphic ;  to  him 
God  is  a  big  man,  with  all  the  weaknesses  and  passions 
of  mortals.  The  pure,  abstract  idea  of  divinity  is  far 
and  away  from  him.  He  feels  the  assurance  of  divine 
care  for  the  world  and  interest  in  him  only  on  the 
plan  that  he  regards  the  affection  of  his  father,  but 
with  one  great  distinction  ;  requiring  a  tangible  method 
of  appeal  to  his  senses,  he  understands  and  appreciates 
in  a  partial  sense  his  parent's  interest  and  authority, 
whereas  he  sees,  feels,  and  knows  nothing  about  a  God, 
excepting  what  people  have  told  him.  The  all-impor- 
tant elements  of  appeal   to   his   comfort,  his   physical 


1 66       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

well-being,  are  immeasurably  stronger  in  the  case  of 
his  parent  than  his  God.  His  greatest  respect  for 
the  latter  is  apt  to  be  founded  upon  a  blind  fear,  the 
dread  of  a  promised  punishment.  Naturally,  it  is  un- 
necessary to  say,  obedience  founded  upon  such  mo- 
tives is  very  easily  distorted,  so  that  he  most  easily 
responds  in  the  way  that  he  believes  will  be  most 
pleasing. 

The  sanctity  of  an  oath  represents  one  of  the 
highest  developments  of  civilized  life.  It  involves  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  bias,  of  personal  welfare,  of  per- 
sonal relations  —  the  very  things  which  go  to  make 
up  the  child's  little  life.  It  calls  for  a  foundation  of 
principle,  of  which  children  are  naturally  ignorant,  and 
an  elimination  of  expediency,  which  is  commonly  the 
governing  factor  with  them.  Likewise  it  presupposes 
a  sufficiently  wide  experience,  a  sufficiently  broad 
training  in  conduct,  so  that  a  partial  knowledge  at 
least  of  what  justice  means  may  result.  A  person 
who,  from  his  position,  cannot  have  a  proper  respect 
for  consequences,  is,  when  so  placed  that  he  may  by 
his  irresponsible  words  sway  the  outcome  of  impor- 
tant causes,  a  positive  menace  to  particular  and  general 
interests.  This  is  the  position  of  the  child-witness ; 
for  his  experience  has  been  so  circumscribed,  so 
closely  restricted  to  his  own  physical  needs,  pleasures 
and  gratifications,  and  the  bent  of  his  mind  calls  so 
clearly  for  tangible  evidences  and  reasons  for   things, 


VALUE  OF  THE   CHILD   AS   A   WITNESS  1 67 

that  he  is  the  last  one  to  feel  the  influence  of  purely 
abstract  considerations. 

Another  fact  which  one  must  keep  in  mind  is,  that 
the  child  knows  nothing  and  cares  nothing  about  the 
public  tone.  The  ordinary  man  knows  and  appreciates 
the  value  of  public  morality  and  right  dealing,  he  has 
a  pride  in  the  high  standard  of  the  community's  acts. 
He  is  aware  of  the  part  he  must  play  in  order  to  main- 
tain this  standard,  and  that  the  resulting  praise  or 
blame  affects  him  as  well  as  his  fellow-citizens.  He 
knows  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  private  virtue 
and  public  vice,  and  therefore,  he  has  a  distinct  reason 
to  hold  on  to  what  is  good  for  the  state,  and  to  discard 
what  is  bad.  But  a  child  is  absolutely  ignorant  of  all 
this.  So  far  as  he  is  concerned,  the  community  does 
not  exist,  its  welfare  is  nothing,  its  aims  and  ends  for 
him  are  nothing.  He  looks  merely  for  the  approbation 
of  parents  and  guardians,  for  they  constitute  his  little 
world.  Any  authority  outside  of  them  is  merely  a 
force  with  which  to  frighten  or  coerce  him.  The 
sentiment  of  patriotism,  when  it  exists  in  him  at  all, 
is  merely  a  reflection  from  the  light  which  shines 
from  some  of  his  connections.  In  himself  he  is  plain 
darkness,  to  whom  the  Hght  comes  in  feeble  and  un- 
certain rays.  His  position  of  neutral  dependence 
requires  an  unquestioning  willingness  to  follow  in  an 
indicated  path,  no  matter  where  it  may  lead.  If  it 
tend  in  the  direction  of  the  public  elevation,  well  and 


l68      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

good;  but  if  it  stretch  out  in  the  opposite  direction, 
he  treads  it  as  willingly.  He  rightfully  has  no  part 
in  any  public  function,  except  a  decorative  part,  and 
the  narrow  scope  of  his  whole  life  makes  certain  a 
like  narrowness  of  ideals. 

Outside  of  these  somewhat  theoretical  reasons,  there 
are  certain  physical  conditions  found  in  childhood, 
which  so  easily  become  pathological  that  abnormal 
mental  action  results.  In  the  first  place,  the  intes- 
tinal tract  does  its  work  of  digestion  and  assimilation 
when  its  contents  are  relatively  quite  or  nearly  aseptic ; 
as  soon  as  there  is  a  slight  excess  of  fermentation  or 
putrefaction,  pathological  manifestations  result.  These 
conditions  one  should  regard  as  mild  but  true  cases 
of  real  poisoning,  with  characteristic  mental  as  well 
as  physical  symptoms.  If  a  child  were  made  sick  by 
some  familiar  poison,  no  one  would  for  a  moment  think 
of  placing  reliance  upon  the  disordered  thoughts  and 
expressions  that  resulted  from  the  pathological  effects 
of  the  intoxication.  Children  are  peculiarly  susceptible 
to  these  effects,  and  respond  to  them  very  strongly, 
partly  because  of  their  slight  power  of  resistance,  and 
partly  because  the  false  mental  actions  which  they 
induce  seem  just  as  reasonable  to  their  inexperienced 
judgments  as  the  ordinary  facts  of  life.  The  slighter 
cases  of  poisoning  caused  by  intestinal  disorders  act 
in  the  same  way,  and  with  as  much  certainty.  Thus 
a  child  suffering  from   these  disorders,  absorbing  poi- 


VALUE  OF  THE   CHILD   AS   A   WITNESS  1 69 

sonous  products  of  fermentation,  will  see  or  hear  or 
feel  or  dream  of  things  and  actions  which  he  may 
honestly  translate  into  terms  of  actual  experience. 
He  may  be  as  sure  of  this  as  of  any  reality,  and  still 
the  whole  matter  may  have  no  greater  foundation 
than  the  undigested  starch  in  a  banana  which  he  ate 
between  meals.  The  various  chemical  processes  of 
assimilation,  which  easily  fall  into  disorder,  may  act 
as  irritants  either  in  the  way  of  repressing  normal 
impulses,  or  exaggerating  sensory  impressions.  There 
is  really  no  limit  where  this  process  may  end,  nor  do 
we  know  the  fixed  point  where  it  must  begin.  At  all 
events,  we  do  know  that  the  chemical  reactions  in 
assimilation  are  exceedingly  complex ;  that  they  are 
easily  interfered  with ;  that  the  resulting  products 
and  by-products  are  very  diverse,  and  in  some  instances 
poisonous.  In  this  way  the  relation  of  concepts  may 
be  broken,  and  the  consequent  mental  impressions 
may  even  go  so  far  as  to  assume  the  dignity  of  full 
illusions. 

Sometimes  the  ordinary  methods  of  teaching,  of 
learning  by  rote,  are  at  fault.  These  act  in  the  way 
of  subjecting  the  nervous  system  to  a  strain  which 
it  is  poorly  prepared  to  stand.  Its  normal  sphere  of 
activity  lies  in  acquiring  new  impressions  that  should 
vary  so  regularly  as  to  avoid  the  danger  of  monotony. 
Impressions  that  are  repeated  too  often  bring  about 
a  morbid,  nervous  condition  that  has  been  called  "  psy- 


I/O       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

chical  trauma."  If  such  a  condition  exists,  it  may 
debase  intellectual  powers  to  much  below  their  right- 
ful standard.  Outside  of  distinct  mental  disorders, 
classified  as  diseases,  some  of  the  lower  emotional 
and  mental  activities  may  in  a  similar  way  be  markedly 
injured.  One  has  evidence  of  this  from  such  signs 
as  nervous  digestive  disorders,  hysterical  attacks,  loss 
of  sleep,  otherwise  inexplicable,  disturbances  of  flush- 
ing and  pallor,  loss  or  impairment  of  reflexes.  One 
sees  these  manifestations  every  day,  and  the  task  of 
connecting  them  with  impaired  intellectual  activity  is 
not  hard.  The  tender  nerve  cells  have  no  large 
amount  of  reserve  energy,  and  what  they  possess  is 
easily  exhausted.  Monotonous  strain,  instead  of  giv- 
ing them  the  strength  which  comes  from  exercise,  wears 
them  out  and  debases  their  functions.  Its  action  is  just 
as  sure  and  just  as  harmful  as  certain  sorts  of  punish- 
ment, of  falls  and  blows  on  the  head,  as  morbid  changes 
in  the  viscera  and  muscles.  The  result  is  that  the 
child's  mind  and  senses  do  not  work  clearly  and  in 
unison ;  his  power  of  observation  and  right  inference 
is  dulled.  This  power  is  naturally  of  the  greatest 
value,  and  when  it  does  not  exist  in  normally  large 
amount,  the  results  of  its  exercise  are  far  from  re- 
liable. 

There  are  other  conditions  which  militate  against 
the  child  in  his  efforts  to  understand  and  report  what 
goes  on  about  him.     Among  these  are  certain  (diseases 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  lyi 

of  the  eye,  phenomena  which  occur  in  the  end  dis- 
tribution of  the  optic  nerve,  among  which  are  the  light 
phenomena  developed  in  the  retina,  the  so-called  light 
dust  of  the  internal  field  of  vision,  shadowings  and 
polychrome  pictures.  Moreover,  these  are  conditions 
for  which  the  adult,  in  ordinary  sight,  makes  allow- 
ances, and  so  escapes  deceit.  But  the  child  is  easily 
enough  led  astray  by  processes  in  the  retinal  vessels, 
such  as  those  involving  the  movements  of  the  blood 
corpuscles,  and  pulsations  of  the  central  artery.  Of 
course  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  limitations  attend- 
ing opacities  of  the  cornea  and  vitreous  and  all  con- 
ditions producing  entoptic  shadows  on  the  retina. 
But  there  are  many  other  pathological  conditions,  for 
instance,  such  as  catarrhs  and  irritations  of  the  middle 
ear  and  irritations  of  the  mucous  membranes  of  the 
face  and  head,  which,  although  not  so  direct,  are  just 
as  potent  to  divert  the  course  between  impressions 
and  their  consequent  expressions.  One  must  dis- 
tinctly keep  in  mind  that  this  course  is  not  necessarily 
direct,  that  an  immature  condition  is  the  one  best 
fitted  to  allow  eccentric  action,  and  that  in  order  to 
obtain  a  true  correspondence  between  concept  and 
rightful  expression,  not  only  must  the  natural  facul- 
ties be  ordinarily  well  guarded  and  nourished,  but  also 
a  certain  fairly  large  amount  of  experience  and  practice 
is  really  essential.  When  this  does  not  exist,  one  is 
very  apt  to  find  a  disturbance  of  conception  produced 


172       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

locally  in  the  cortex  of  the  brain,  by  which  the  child 
is  unable  to  distinguish  between  the  internal  processes 
and  their  external  conditions.  If  the  ability  to  differ- 
entiate is  impaired,  an  hallucination  is  present,  de- 
pendent upon  processes  in  those  parts  of  the  brain 
which  preserve  memory  pictures  of  the  most  varied^ 
kinds. 

One  must  distinctly  keep  in  mind  that  such  dis- 
orders, and  others  like  them,  are  peculiarly  apt  to 
happen  to  children.  The  youthful  organization,  by 
the  very  fact  of  its  immaturity,  its  unripe  and  unset- 
tled conditions,  invites  them.  Things  which  would 
affect  an  adult  only  slightly  react  upon  a  child  in  a 
startlingly  acute  and  active  manner.  In  a  man  a 
slight  disturbance  of  the  circulatory  apparatus  in  the 
eye  would,  in  all  likelihood,  be  promptly  recognized 
and  discounted.  In  a  child  the  false  subjective  impres- 
sions thus  created  would  be  regarded  as  real  facts  of 
objective  importance.  He  could  have  no  possibility 
or  grounds  of  discrimination,  and  the  opinions  which 
would  thus  arise  would  naturally  seem  to  him  orderly 
and  right.  In  the  same  way,  any  abnormal  condition 
giving  rise  to  abnormal  sense-impressions  or  interrup- 
tions of  normal  connections  in  thought  must  make  the 
child  feel,  see,  and  think  things  that  are  false.  It  is  not 
hard  to  show  that  the  consequences  may  be  very  seri- 
ous. The  main  thing  to  keep  in  mind  is  that  no  ordi- 
nary child  is  a  fit  means  to  record  and  express  accurate 


VALUE  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  A  WITNESS  1 73 

and  truthful  ideas.  His  main  part  in  life  is  prepara- 
tory, constructive.  He  is  being  built  up  into  a  later 
creation  that  we  call  the  adult.  To  measure  him  and 
his  efforts  by  the  standard  of  maturity  is,  speaking 
mildly,  unwise.  To  put  him  in  the  responsible  posi- 
tion of  an  adult  is  like  placing  a  premium  on  mis- 
carriages of  justice. 

The  special  environment  which  the  child  needs  in 
his  physical  life  has  its  analogue  in  the  particular  cir- 
cumstances with  which  his  mental  life  should  be 
guarded.  When  the  community  gives  him  a  greater 
responsibility  than  he  is  rightfully  able  to  assume, 
it  opens  the  door  to  disaster.  The  only  safeguard 
that  can  effectually  preserve  the  common  interests  is 
the  withdrawal  of  such  evidence  from  courts  of  law 
as  a  well-informed  man  must,  a  priori,  doubt.  The 
easiest  solution  of  the  matter  would  be  to  find  some 
approximate  age  at  which  human  beings  are  fairly 
close  to  a  permanent  standard  which  is  in  general 
reliable.  At  a  glance  one  can  see  that  nature  has 
followed  some  such  method,  and  has  marked  out  the 
period  which  we  call  puberty  as  the  boundary  line. 
This  demarcation  would,  of  course,  be  not  exact ;  but, 
at  all  events,  it  would  be  a  nearer  approach  to  a  safe 
and  conservative  rule  than  any  which  we  now  have. 
In  reality,  there  is  at  present  no  rule  at  all.  Judges 
and  lawyers  vary  according  to  the  run  of  cases,  by 
a  sort  of  common  sense,  by  a  rule  of  thumb  procedure. 


174       THE  DEVELOrMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Evidence  that  suits  one  is  quite  unsatisfactory  to 
another,  and  both  may  be  equally  ignorant  of  real, 
scientific  grounds  for  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of 
the  testimony  in  question.  The  interest  of  all  con- 
cerned lies  in  wiping  out  sources  of  permanent  error. 


^  '^^^^ 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Development  of  the  Child-Criminal 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  every  community  has 
the  government  which  it  deserves ;  that  it  has  the 
prevalence  of  order  as  far  as  its  deserts  go ;  and 
as  truly  one  may  say  that  every  community  has  the 
juvenile  criminals  that  it  deserves,  and  deserves  the 
juvenile  criminals  that  prey  upon  it.  For,  in  this 
respect,  as  in  every  other,  there  is  no  condition  in  a 
state  that  is  caused  by  purely  extraneous  reasons. 
Such  as  it  is,  whether  good  or  bad,  it  makes  its  own 
salvation.  By  its  own  constitution  it  is  to  be  praised 
or  blamed.  In  so  far  as  it  is  worthy  of  triumphing 
over  obstacles  does  it  seek  to  find  the  reason  for 
them,  and  with  this  quest  comes  the  final  solution. 
Thus  problem  after  problem  has  been  attacked,  and 
the  resulting  triumphs  have  come  after  much  strug- 
gling, much  controversy,  much  seeking.  The  fights 
against  slavery,  against  the  oldtime  habits  of  drink- 
ing, against  the  former  methods  in  prison  adminis- 
tration, have  been  long  and  bitter.  Many  a  man  has 
sought  the  truth  in  them,  and  has  received  misfortune, 

175 


176  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

or  even  death,  for  his  pains.  But  the  world  needed 
improvement,  and  deserved  improvement,  and  a  bet- 
ter condition  came. 

A  somewhat  analogous  phase  of  development  one  may 
see  in  relation  to  the  causation  and  treatment  of  the 
child-criminal.  There  is  in  the  dim  public  mind  an 
idea  that  we  have  not  reached  final  conclusions  in  the 
matter ;  in  fact,  the  subject  of  criminology,  philosophi- 
cally considered,  is  a  comparatively  new  one.  Some 
of  the  best  minds  have  been  working  upon  it,  and 
even  general  attention  has  regarded  it  with  the  great- 
est interest.  Each  man  who  in  the  matter  has  shown 
ability,  strengthened  by  thought  and  experience,  has 
his  special  following  of  adherents,  each  of  whom  strives 
to  bring  a  stone  to  help  in  building  up  the  edifice 
begun  by  the  master. 

And  the  great  number  of  varying  ideas  shows  how 
far  we  are  from  a  settlement  of  the  case.  Thus, 
Lombroso,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  criminology,  has 
given  a  large  place  to  the  atavistic  theory,  that  the 
criminal  is  a  distinct  type,  that  his  special  character- 
istics of  mind  and  body  come  to  him  by  the  royal 
road  of  heredity.  Dr.  von  Holder  believes  that  ex- 
ample and  poverty  and  lying  are  principal  courses  of 
crime.  Garofalo  disagrees,  saying  that  criminal  types 
are  well  fixed  and  constant,  that  "  recidivatioh  of  the 
criminal  is  the  rule,  reformation  the  exception." 
What   is   more,  perversity  is   a   natural   condition ;   in 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 77 

his  mind  education,  religious  and  economic  conditions 
are  naught.  Dr.  Baer  lays  the  blame  in  great  part 
to  the  abuse  of  alcohol,  and  concludes  that  without 
such  excesses  the  world  would  be  immeasurably 
better.  Richter,  on  the  contrary,  cries  that  alco- 
holics are  light  offenders ;  that  serious  crime  is  the 
result  of  epilepsy,  of  nervous  irritations  working  in 
a  fairly  well  known,  but  wrongly  classified  category. 
Prosper  Despine  lays  greatest  stress  upon  "moral 
blindness  "  ;  that  cure  is  to  come  by  moral  elevation, 
not  by  prisons.  Beranger  supports  him  by  the  opin- 
ion that  confirmed  criminals  are  the  effect  of  prisons, 
and  is  backed  up  by  Dr.  Laurent,  who  believes  in 
the  present  system,  but  even  more  in  its  future  devel- 
opment. Marimo  and  Gambara  trace  some  connec- 
tion between  Wormian  bones  and  vicious  traits,  but 
Corre  finds  nothing  anatomically  peculiar  to  criminals. 
Wines  lays  least  stress  upon  theory,  and  cares  least 
for  it,  claiming  that  "  the  principal  hope  of  any  mate- 
rial reduction  in  the  volume  of  crime  lies  in  its  pre- 
vention rather  than  its  cure." 

At  all  events,  we  know  that  crime,  although  its 
cause  is  obscure,  is  a  very  present  reality,  and  also, 
that  on  the  whole  it  is  increasing.  Moreover,  it  is 
not  hard  to  see  that  the  relation  between  crime  in 
general  and  juvenile  crime  is  a  constant  one.  They 
rise  and  fall  together,  and  similar  causes  act  in  both 
for  their  development  or  repression.  Factors  of  gen- 
ii 


178       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

eral  life  have  the  same  effect  upon  both,  and  in  addi- 
tion, example  and  juxtaposition  enable  the  old  to  lead 
the  young.  Therefore,  when  we  say  that  practically 
no  progress,  by  and  large,  has  been  made  in  diminish- 
ing the  volume  of  crime,  it  is  much  the  same  as  if  we 
omit  the  word  crime,  and  in  its  place  substitute  the 
phrase  juvenile  crime.  Thus,  in  searching  for  a  final 
reason  in  this  matter,  we  may  know  that  the  two 
terms  are  interchangeable,  and  argument  becomes 
much  simpler. 

Among  other  things,  one  is  able  to  exclude  from 
the  aetiology  certain  factors  which  have  often  been 
blamed  as  the  root  of  the  evil.  For  instance,  many 
people  believe  that  a  deficient  education  has  the  greatest 
tendency  to  brutalize  and  debase ;  that  if  intellectual 
enlightenment  were  more  wisely  spread,  wrong-doing 
would  of  necessity  shrink  away.  So  common  is  this 
belief  that  anti-social  acts  committed  by  an  ignorant 
man  are  often  partially  excused  on  the  score  of  his 
ignorance,  while  equal  wrong  in  an  educated  man  is 
looked  upon  as  showing  far  greater  depravity,  because 
he  must  have  been  sufficiently  well  instructed  to  know 
the  nature  of  his  acts.  This  may  seem  plausible 
enough,  but  it  is  far  from  being  true.  There_ls_np 
inevitable  relation  between  intellectual  training  and 
moral  obliquity.  The  criminal  is  a  criminal  exactly 
the  same  whether  he  is  stupid  or  instructed,  the  only 
difference  being  that  in  the  latter  case  he  is  the  more 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  179 

dangerous,  on  account  of  greater  mental  training. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  limit  in  education  beyond  which 
crime  is  impossible.  On  the  other  hand,  one  con- 
stantly finds  instances  of  persons  who,  having  received 
the  benefits  of  good,  or  even  the  best,  educational  train- 
ing, are  nevertheless  unable  to  act  in  an  honest  and 
upright  manner.  Besides  this,  one  sees  every  day 
cases  of  wrong-doing  committed  by  people  whose  intel- 
lectual advantages  have  been  such  that  they,  while  pos- 
sessing the  ability  to  cloak  the  viciousness  of  their 
deeds,  are  able  to  act  in  an  essentially  criminal  way. 
And  it  is  only  by  means  of  their  intellectual  advan- 
tages that  they  continue  with  impunity  so  to  act.  This 
view,  if  one  looks  at  the  rather  meagre  statistics  on 
the  subject,  is  fully  sustained.  Those  of  Dr.  Ogle 
are  in  point.  In  speaking  of  them  he  says :  "  Eighty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  population  were  able  to  read  and 
write  in  the  years  1881-84,  and  as  this  represents  an 
increase  of  ten  per  cent  since  the  passing  of  the  Ele- 
mentary Education  Act,  it  is  probably  not  far  from  the 
mark  to  say  that  at  the  present  time  almost  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  English  population  can  read  and  write. 
In  other  words,  only  ten  per  cent  of  the  population  is 
wholly  ignorant."  This  high  percentage  in  instruc- 
tion characterized  a  period  that  suffered  from  a  large 
increase  in  crime,  although  the  general  relation  be- 
tween the  two  phenomena  was  not  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  other  times.     With  the  growth  of 


l80  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CPHLD 

statistical  knowledge  the  truth  of  this  is  seen  to  have 
a  wider  and  wider  application. 

Destitution,  it  is  often  said,  is  at  the  bottom  of  much 
of  the  crime  in  the  world ;  that  evil-doers  are  such 
because  want  crowds  them  out  of  the  straight  path  of 
rectitude ;  that  when  poverty,  with  its  sodden  wings, 
overshadows  a  man,  the  light  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness is  shut  out,  and  he  becomes,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  morally  blind.  This  sounds  very  well  when 
used,  as  it  commonly  is,  to  fill  out  begging  letters.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  not  very  much  truth  in  it. 
Indeed,  one  finds,  on  examination,  that  the  evidence 
is  all  the  other  way.  Before  looking  at  the  testimony, 
one  would  naturally  think  that  men  who  were  oppressed 
by  heavy  burdens  would  be  the  most  liable  to  law- 
breaking,  that  by  sheer  force  of  desperation  they  would 
do  anything  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  to-day.  Also, 
one  would  suppose  that  times  of  profound  destitution 
would  be  most  deeply  marked  with  crime.  The  sur- 
prising thing  is  that  both  of  these  suppositions  are 
false.  ^  One  finds  criminals,  as  a  rule,  to  be  those  per- 
sons who  have  almost  no  responsible  burdens,  who  in 
this  respect  are  freest  of  all  to  use  whatever  faculties 
)■  they  may  possess  to  the  best  advantage ;  and  what  is 
stranger  still,  one  can  easily  ascertain  that  times  of 
prosperity  show  the  greatest  flourishing  of  crime. 
Therefore,  Morrison,  a  reliable  writer,  says  :  "  It  is  a 
melancholy  fact  that  the  moment  wages  begin  to  rise. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  l8l 

the  statistics  of  crime  almost  immediately  follow  suit, 
and  at  no  period  are  there  more  offences  of  all  kinds 
against  the  person  than  when  prosperity  is  at  its 
height."  In  another  place  one  reads :  "  It  is  found 
that  the  stress  of  economic  conditions  has  very  little 
to  do  with  making  these  unhappy  beings  what  they 
are ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  in  periods  of  prosperity  that 
they  sink  to  the  lowest  depths."  It  is  easy  to  collect 
such  opinions,  opinions  which  carry  all  the  weight  of 
authority  with  them.  For  the  deeper  investigators  dig, 
and  the  nearer  they  come  to  the  truth,  the  more  clearly 
do  their  results  agree.  Therefore,  one  is  prepared  for 
a  still  later  and  very  recent  utterance  which  says : 
"When  we  begin  to  compare  the  distribution  of  pauper- 
ism with  the  distribution  of  crime,  both  juvenile  and 
adult,  it  immediately  becomes  manifest  that  as  a  rule 
there  is  least  pauperism  where  there  is  most  crime, ' 
and  of  course  least  crime  where  there  is  most  pauper- 
ism." 

Many  a  man  who  has  the  interests  of  society  close  at 
heart  may  say  that  if  ignorance  is  not  the  cause,  if 
destitution  is  not  the  cause,  then  we  have  not  far  to 
search,  for  in  drunkenness,  which  is  ever  with  us,  we 
have  a  reason  whose  validity  is  sure  and  certain.  This 
seems  very  plausible,  for  the  vicious  and  stupefying 
effects  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol  every  one  constantly 
witnesses.  We  so  regularly  see  fortunes  wrecked, 
careers  blighted,  men  and  women  dragged  down  to  the 


1 82       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

lowest  depths  by  this  vice,  that  it  comes  to  represent 
everything  bad.  It  is  only  a  step  farther  to  the  con- 
clusions that  criminal  impulses  and  acts  must  follow  as 
the  rightful  sequel  of  it.  This  conclusion,  while  it  flat- 
ters our  sentimental  side,  is  not  based  upon  fact,  and 
while  the  effects  of  inebriety  are  undoubtedly  very  bad, 
nevertheless,  the  causation  of  crime  is  not  one  of  them. 
The  real  reason  must  lie  somewhere  else,  as  a  study 
of  statistical  returns  shows.  We  know  that  men  in 
certain  years  of  their  life,  between  the  ages  of  thirty 
and  forty,  are  more  liable  than  at  any  other  time  to 
become  drunkards.  Also,  we  know  that  at  this  time 
they  are  not  most  addicted  to  crime  for  which  they  may 
be  indicted.  We  know  that  youths  from  sixteen  to 
twenty-one  years  of  age  are  most  liable  to  commit  such 
crimes,  but  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  not  nearly  so 
apt  to  be  drunkards.  When  we  come  to  juveniles 
less  than  sixteen  years  old,  who  may  not  in  any  way 
be  said  to  be  addicted  to  intoxication,  we  find  that 
they  produce  indictable  criminals  in  the  proportion 
of  two  and  sixty-one  hundredths  to  every  one  thousand 
of  the  population  of  a  similar  age. 

Compare  this  with  the  fact  that  among  the  older 
population  of  from  thirty  to  forty  years  the  proportion 
of  indictable  criminals  is  only  two  to  one  thousand. 
The  conclusion  is  somewhat  startling  to  preconceived 
ideas,  but  not  more  so  than  another  comparison  that 
is  easily  made.     Men  between  thirty  and  forty  years 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 83 

of  age,  as  was  said  above,  are  much  more  liable  to 
indulge  in  intoxicating  excesses  than  at  earlier  periods 
of  life ;  to  put  the  matter  more  exactly,  they  are 
seven  times  more  liable  than  at  the  period  of  life 
between  sixteen  and  twenty-one  years.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  this  latter  period  indictable  crime  is  much 
more  frequent,  and,  indeed,  is  more  frequent  than  at 
any  other  time  of  life.  Between  these  latter  years 
there  are  three  and  three  tenths  convictions  per  annum 
for  indictable  crimes  for  every  one  thousand  of  the 
population.  While  at  the  age  in  which  drunkenness 
is  most  found,  there  are  only  two  and  two  tenths  to 
an  equal  number.  The  difference  of  fifty  per  cent 
cannot  be  explained  away  so  long  as  we  hold  to  the 
conception  that  inebriety,  whether  in  adults  or  chil- 
dren, is  the  cause  of  crime. 

When  one,  in  the  search  for  this  illusive  cause,  turns 
to  heredity,  the  difficulty  is  just  as  great.  This  is  in 
spite  of  the  general  belief  that  strongly  marked  traits 
must  necessarily  be  the  legacy  of  descent.  The  results 
of  scientific  investigation  have,  since  1859,  been  so 
startling,  and  the  knowledge  of  them  has  been  so 
perseveringly  reiterated,  that  a  really  surprising  amount 
of  information  on  the  subject  has  become  diffused. 
One  must  of  course  expect  that  the  applications  of 
such  knowledge  should  at  times  be  inexact,  and  that 
is  the  very  fact  which  experience  illustrates.  Because 
certain  forms  of  insanity  seem  to   leave   an   inherited 


1 84      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

taint,  the  general  conclusion  is  frequently  and  very 
rashly  reached  that  all  forms  of  mental  disease  leave 
traces  of  a  similar  kind  upon  descendants.  Because 
flowers  produce  flowers,  because  human  beings  beget 
human  beings,  the  particular  deduction  is  held  that  all 
individual  traits  may  likewise  be  transmitted.  In  this 
way,  an  opinion  in  regard  to  crime  is  held,  there  is  a 
general  belief  that  the  offspring  of  a  man  who  has  time 
and  time  again  been  convicted  of  anti-social  acts  must 
partake  of  his  nature,  must  have  an  equally  small 
amount  of  resistance  to  temptation,  must  be  marked 
with  the  same  convict's  stripe,  and  at  every  possible 
opportunity  attempts  are  made  to  trace  such  a  con- 
nection. When,  as  the  result  of  coincidence  or  of  fact, 
the  relationship  has  been  established,  the  case  is  held 
up  as  a  shining  example  of  the  popular  belief.  Our 
inquiry  in  this  matter  would  be  much  simplified,  and 
our  faith  in  the  broad  working  of  heredity  much  more 
surely  founded,  if  there  were  not  so  many  evidences  of 
an  unjustly  broad  application  of  the  principle  in  ques- 
tion. Our  faith  receives  a  crushing  blow  when  we  read 
in  an  authoritative  English  report  that  "in  the  five 
years,  1887-91,  the  children  whose  parents  were  habit- 
ual criminals  formed  two  per  cent  of  the  industrial 
^  school  {i.e.,  youthful  criminals)  population."  Another 
blow  to  this  belief  is  the  conclusion  which  a  sifting  of 
records  forces  upon  one,  that  a  criminal  calling  does 
not  as  a  rule  descend  from  father  to  son.     On  the  other 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 85 

hand,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  the  art  is  learned, 
not  inherited.     There  seems  to  be  need  for  a  distinct 
training,  which  most  children  can  easily  absorb.    There- 
fore, one  is  not  at  all  shocked  when  a  capable  investi-i 
gator  enunciates   the   idea  that   crime    "  descends   by  \ 
apprenticeship,  and  not,  as  a  rule,  by  parenthood." 

There  still  remains  the  strong  idea  that  acquired  v 
characteristics  are  not  transmissible.  We  know  that  a 
parent  who  has  suffered  an  amputation  of  a  limb  does 
not  hand  down  to  his  children  a  like  deformity ;  we 
know  that  in  the  pursuit  of  certain  industries  changes 
of  form  occur  that  are  not  transmitted,  that  in  the  cloth' 
cutting  trade  the  distal  phalanges  of  the  left  hand, 
on  account  of  the  pressure  of  holding  the  fabric,  are 
twisted  out  of  their  normal  lines,  and  finally  constitute 
a  permanent  deformity.  Although  this  deformity  may 
exist  in  a  man  for  a  whole  generation,  nevertheless,  his 
children  do  not  bear  any  marks  of  it.  A  man  may  be 
exquisitely  cultured,  his  children,  under  the  proper  cir- 
cumstances,  may  be  crude  boors.  It  has  not  been 
proved  that  there  is  in  human  germ-plasm  the  faculty 
of  absorbing  the  results  of  experience ;  all  that  can  be 
demonstrated  is  the  handing  on  of  characteristics  that 
are  more  nearly  somatic.  A  certain  shape  of  skull,  a 
certain  complexion,  a  certain  dimension  of  stature,  are 
clearly  matters  of  inheritance.  But  characters  which  \ 
are  produced  by  environment  are  not  in  the  same  cate- 
gory,  are   without   the    pale   of    hereditary   influence,  l 


1 86       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Whatever  effects  are  produced  in  this  way  are  the  re- 
sult of  a  particular  set  of  environments  and  do  not 
necessarily  extend  beyond  the  person  in  whom  they 
exist.  Ordinary  life  is  full  of  exemplifications  of  this 
which,  with  little  trouble,  may  be  clearly  recognized. 
For  instance,  glance  at  the  children  committed  to  the 
industrial  and  reformatory  schools  in  England.  A 
short  time  ago,  their  numbers  increased  so  markedly 
that  the  growth  became  the  subject  of  official  inquiry. 
The  children  were  found  to  have  followed  not  merely 
in  the  ordinary  inheritable  traits  of  their  parents,  but 
still  more  did  they  mirror  the  effects  of  their  surround- 
ings. They  became  criminals  at  their  early  age,  be- 
cause anti-social  acts  were  the  patterns  upon  which 
their  lives  were  cast.  Thus  in  the  evidence  brought 
out  by  the  Royal  Commission  on  Reformatory  and 
Industrial  Schools,  a  member  of  the  Gateshead  School 
Board  deposed  that  the  parents  of  the  children  com- 
mitted to  the  Gateshead  Industrial  School  consisted  of 
the  "  refuse  of  the  laborers  in  the  large  manufactories, 
men  who  have  been  thrown  out  of  employment,  and 
who  have  drifted  into  the  very  lowest  class  of  the 
population." 

On  the  other  hand,  to  show  how  little  effect  heredity 
has  in  the  production  of  juvenile  crime,  take  the  case 
of  children,  descended  from  approximately  the  same 
class  of  parents  as  those  cited  above,  who  were  sup- 
ported wholly  or  in  part  by  London  charity.     Accord- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 87 

ing  to  the  returns  for  the  year  1891-92  of  the  Local 
Government  Board,  more  than  one-half  of  these  chil- 
dren were  taken  care  of  without  the  parents  being 
similarly  provided  for.  As  a  condition  of  this  support, 
the  authorities  held  the  power  of  carefully  looking 
after  their  wards.  They  assiduously  watched  the  ways 
of  these  children,  they  shut  them  off  from  the  tempta- 
tions and  the  vicious  practices  in  which  otherwise  they 
must  have  participated,  they  stood,  after  a  fashion,  in 
the  responsible  position  of  parents.  Restraint  took 
the  place  of  license,  supervision  came  in  where  care- 
lessness went  out,  responsibility  was  substituted  for 
neglect.  The  result  was  truly  remarkable,  and  the 
children,  in  consequence,  seemingly  lived  quite  differ- 
ent lives.  So  much  changed  were  they  that  they  were 
"  hardly  ever  arrested  as  vagrants  or  thieves "  ;  they 
were  effectively  shielded  "from  the  very  class  of  of- 
fences which  come  within  the  provisions  of  the  Indus- 
trial School  Acts."  These  facts  serve  as  nails  to  hold 
the  proof  together,  and  in  order  to  clinch  them  on  the 
other  side,  it  is  necessary  only  to  quote  Morrison's  gen- 
eralization that  "in  the  year  1891,  forty-four  per  cent 
of  the  juveniles  committed  to  reformatories  were  living 
at  home,  and  had  both  parents  alive."  It  must  be 
quite  clear  that  the  home  and  its  environment  were 
the  infecting  material ;  the  children  served  as  culture 
media,  and  showed  symptoms  of  infection,  the  principal 
of  which  was  an  anti-social  tendency. 


1 88      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Of  late  years  no  study  in  the  practical  effects  of 
heredity  has  carried  with  it  a  greater  amount  of  popu- 
lar belief  than  Dugdale's  account  of  the  "Jukes."  They 
were  a  family  of  criminals  and  paupers  whose  history 
dates  back  to  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
They  lived  together  in  a  section  of  country  which  has 
been  called  "one  of  the  crime-cradles  of  the  State  of 
New  York."  They  were  vicious,  lazy,  addicted  to  all 
manner  of  excess  and  crime.  The  total  number  of 
persons  in  this  family  and  its  descendants  has  been 
estimated  at  twelve  hundred.  Each  generation  handed 
on  to  the  next  all  the  crime  and  vice  that  the  mind  of 
man  could  possibly  conceive.  For  the  most  part  they 
herded  together  in  roughly  made  shanties,  where  they 
lived  a  vile  sort  of  life  in  common.  With  this  place  as 
a  base  of  supplies,  they  preyed  upon  the  community 
at  large,  distributing  their  evil  influence  in  a  way  that 
is  hard  fully  to  realize.  Generation  after  generation 
showed  similar  traits  of  disease,  of  viciousness,  licen- 
tiousness and  crime.  An  elaborate  sociological  study 
has  been  made  of  them,  with  the  conclusion  that  the 
children  were  modeled  after  the  parents.  This  family 
has  pointed  the  moral  in  many  discourses  on  heredity ; 
they  have  served  to  fasten  the  idea  in  the  minds  of 
many  people  that  in  human  beings  the  course  of  in- 
heritance of  characteristics  is  direct ;  that  there  is  an 
inevitable  fate  which  decides  a  child's  mental  and 
physical  constitution,  even  before  birth. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 89 

Such  a  conclusion  is  more  than  rash,  and  a  fairly 
careful  consideration  of  the  facts  will  show  how  false 
it  is.  In  this  crowd  of  unfortunates  there  was  no 
possibility  of  intercourse  with  decent  citizens ;  the 
"  Jukes  "  children  were  shut  out  from  every  humanizing 
influence  ;  they  were  pariahs,  constantly  suspected,  con- 
stantly distrusted,  against  whom  the  hand  of  every  man 
was  virtuously  raised.  Their  children  were  born  in  the 
midst  of  the  worst  possible  surroundings,  and  inhaled 
the  odor  of  all  manner  of  vice  long  before  they  knew 
what  the  boundaries  between  good  and  bad  are.  At 
a  time  when  slavery  was  legal  in  this  State,  they 
showed  how  abysmal  was  their  grade  in  the  social 
scale  by  marrying  mulattoes.  With  such  surroundings 
any  other  fate  was  impossible.  "  The  tendency  of 
human  beings  is  to  obtain  their  living  in  the  direc- 
tion of  least  resistance,  according  to  their  views  of 
what  that  direction  is."  With  every  example  mark- 
ing the  way  to  crime,  with  every  obstacle  standing  in 
the  way  to  virtue,  it  would  be  almost  miraculous  if 
they  were  reputable.  As  the  author  himself  has  said, 
"want,  bad  company,  neglect,  form  the  environment 
that  predisposes  to  larceny."  When  these  factors  are 
increased  by  all  known  means,  one  has  a  predisposi- 
tion that  becomes  magnified  into  a  salient  trait. 

Curiously  enough,  Dugdale  has  unconsciously  given 
instances  of  the  method  by  which  the  viciousness  of 
the   "Jukes"  might  have   been   prevented,  by   which 


v/ 


190  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

these  seemingly  hopeless  characters  might  have  been 
reclaimed.  He  mentions  a  married  pair  of  this  family 
who  removed  from  the  rest  to  where  they  were  not 
so  well  known.  Naturally,  the  outlook  changed,  they 
left  the  ranks  of  beasts,  and  took  their  stand  among 
human  beings.  Their  offspring  developed  in  much 
the  same  way  as  the  other  children  of  the  new  neigh- 
borhood, as  many  children  of  a  fairly  respectable 
parentage.  As  the  author  says :  "  This  pair  thus 
measurably  protected  themselves  and  their  progeny 
from  the  environment  of  eight  contaminating  persons, 
all  immediate  relatives,  whose  lives  were,  with  few 
exceptions,  quite  profligate."  He  mentions  still  an- 
other case  that  is  equally  instructive.  One  of  the 
"Juke"  women,  a  harlot  and  criminal,  died  in  the 
poor  house,  leaving  a  daughter  of  the  age  of  one  year 
behind  her.  This  child,  according  to  hard  ideas  of 
heredity,  should  have  year  by  year  shown  increasing 
tendencies  toward  evil  ways,  and  in  all  likelihood,  if 
she  had  remained  within  the  taint  of  her  family's 
influence,  she  must  have  done  so ;  but  fortunately,  a 
lady  of  wealth  adopted  her,  gave  her  some  of  the  care 
which  she  needed,  and  at  the  time  of  the  report  — 
when  she  was  old  enough,  according  to  the  family 
standard,  to  show  vicious  tendencies  —  she  was  seem- 
ingly quite  normal.  If  this  happy  change  in  her  fort- 
unes had  not  occurred,  if  she  had  remained  with  her 
mother's   family,  "which   must   have   been   sufficient 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  191 

without    heredity   to    stimulate    licentious    practices," 
there  is  very  little  doubt  of  what  her  fate  would  have 
been.     And  then  there  would  have  been  still  another 
case  of  the  inexorable  law  by  which  the  attributes  of 
the  parents  show  themselves  in  the  children.     In  simi- 
lar ways  it  would  be  easy  to  multiply  such  instances 
in  other  families,  where  children  of  vicious  birth,  when 
adopted   into   finer   surroundings,   blossomed  out   into  ; 
useful  men  and  women,  and  in  like  manner,  one   can  | 
find  enough   cases  of  well-born  offspring  degenerating  ' 
far  below  their  natural  plane,  when  their   atmosphere  , 
was  such  as  to  make  the  falling  off  logical. 

If  now  we  are  not  satisfied  with  heredity  as  the 
essential  cause  of  crime,  if  ignorance,  if  destitution,  if 
drunkenness,  are  not  the  cause,  can  we  turn  with 
greater  faith  to  the  other  explanations  ?  To  most  of 
them,  certainly  not.  For  these  are  such  as  have  too 
little  weight,  which  at  most  may  be  called  secondary. 
Various  authors  have  claimed  that  climate  is  a  con- 
trolling cause,  that  variations  in  latitude  have  impor- 
tant significance.  But  this  can  hardly  be  the  fact,  for 
all  climates  and  lands  have  similar  crimes  and  anti- 
social acts ;  they  all  seem  to  suffer  from  the  same  sick- 
ness, and  all  are  powerless  to  heal  themselves.  It  is 
true  that  there  may  be  some  difference  in  the  symp- 
toms, such  as  the  greater  proportion  of  crimes  against 
the  person  in  Southern  countries,  and  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  offences  against  property  in  Northern.     But 


192  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

the  disease  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  same 
the  world  over.  Seasons,  others  say,  are  responsible. 
Here  again  one  is  dissatisfied,  for  there  is  no  season 
which  is  without  its  wrong  deeds,  nor  is  there  even  the 
satisfaction  of  logical  sequence  between  the  exigencies 
of  the  weather,  and  the  showing  which  crime  makes. 
Thus  one  would  expect  that  in  the  harshest  seasons, 
when  human  needs  are  greatest,  when  want  is  most 
keenly  felt,  men  would  become  so  desperate  as  to 
throw  aside  social  restraints,  and  in  order  to  satisfy 
their  wants,  prey  upon  whoever  came  into  their  hands. 
But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  this  is  quite  different  from 
the  real  state  of  things.  Surprising  as  it  may  seem, 
nevertheless  it  is  true,  that  crime  is  commonest  in  the 
pleasantest  seasons  of  the  year,  when  people  have  least 
in  nature  to  contend  with,  when  they  are  most  abroad 
and  mingling  together.  It  has  even  been  said  that  food 
is  the  acting  cause,  that  strong  meat  foods  inflame  the 
passions,  heat  the  blood,  and  incline  men  to  deeds  of 
violence.  This  is  so  far  from  the  truth  that  it  needs 
merely  the  mention  of  a  concrete  case  to  set  it  at  rest. 
The  Italians  as  a  people  have  a  largely  vegetable  diet 
that  is  not  as  "  heating,"  their  food  is  not  nearly  as 
"strong"  as  that  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Nevertheless,  the  percentage  of  crime  among  the 
Italians  is  among  the  highest,  while  that  of  the  United 
States  is  among  the  low.  Another  case  in  point  is  that 
of  the  native  inhabitants  of  India,  whose  diet  is  both 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  193 

light  and  meagre.  And  yet,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
interference  of  the  carnivorous  English,  they  would 
even  now  be  addicted  to  the  almost  universal  practice 
of  infanticide. 

In  ruling  out  these  factors  of  poverty,  ignorance, 
inebriety,  heredity,  food  and  weather,  we  have  done 
something  to  clear  the  view,  and  have  brought  a  decis- 
ion within  reasonable  distance.  We  may  be  helped  by 
reading  the  results  of  investigations  in  the  subject,  no 
matter  where  conducted.  Thus  we  know  positively 
that  crime  occurs  in  all  ranks  and  at  all  ages,  that  the 
particular  form  which  it  assumes  depends  upon  the 
maturity  and  circumstances  of  the  individual.  A  child 
of  seven  years  is  unable  on  account  of  his  immaturity 
to  commit  highway  robbery,  or  most  of  the  offences 
against  the  person ;  he  is  so  weak  in  mind  and  body 
that  the  most  he  can  do  is  to  be  guilty  of  vagrancy  or 
larceny.  Any  boy,  for  instance,  who  is  well  cared  for, 
who  is  well  nourished  and  lovingly  watched,  is  plainly 
unable  to  fall  into  this  category.  Such  offenders  one 
would  not  find  among  the  offspring  of  the  well-to-do 
and  more  fortunate  classes.  On  the  contrary,  among 
those  people  whose  parental  care  is  least,  whose  ability 
and  willingness  to  attend  to  the  needs  of  their  children 
are  smallest,  one  should  find  the  greatest  numbers  of 
this  sort  of  delinquents.  Such  a  class  one  finds  in  the 
lowest  grade  of  workers,  among  the  so-called  general 
laborers,  for  their  ranks  are  in  large  part  made  up  of 


194       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

men  who  have  failed  in  other  branches,  men  who  have 
almost  no  training  of  mind  or  body  worthy  of  the 
name,  men  who  are  least  self-controlled,  least  provided 
with  the  means  of  supplying  the  needs  of  a  family. 
They  have  the  greatest  difficulty  in  maintaining  a  re- 
spectable position  in  society ;  their  short-sightedness 
and  improvidence  prevent  them  from  seeing  the  conse- 
quences of  their  acts,  and  naturally  they  easily  fall 
victims  to  their  wants  or  their  passions.  This  is  the 
reason  why  low-skilled  workers  are  proportionately  from 
three  to  four  times  more  numerous  in  prisons  than  in 
the  general  community.  It  follows,  consequently,  that 
their  children  are  least  provided  for,  that  they  have  the 
worst  examples  set  before  them,  that  they  are  most  lia- 
ble to  contract  vicious  practices.  Thus  it  has  been 
officially  reported  that  "of  the  number  of  young  of- 
fenders committed  to  reformatories  in  the  year  1891, 
there  were,  as  near  as  it  is  possible  to  calculate,  thirty- 
two  per  cent  descended  on  one  or  both  sides  from 
parents  who  neglected  to  control  them,  or  deserted 
them,  or  were  in  prison  for  crime."  Here  one  sees  a 
direct  connection  of  cause  and  effect;  these  children 
were  vicious,  not  necessarily  because  their  parents  were 
ignorant  or  poor,  but  simply  because,  since  worthy  ex- 
amples to  imitate  were  absent,  and  opportunities  to 
wrong-doing  meant  gratification,  they  took  the  easiest 
road  to  satisfy  their  wants. 

Even  after  they  have  committed  wrong,  have  been 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 95 

caught  and  punished,  they  are  no  whit  improved. 
They  are  released  from  prison  more  thoroughly  than 
ever  infected  with  viciousness  by  companionship  with 
a  herd  of  youthful  offenders  —  imps,  one  might  call 
them ;  they  return  to  their  homes  and  former  sur- 
roundings, and  the  same  old  story  repeats  itself.  The 
only  change  consists  in  their  greater  age,  their  wider 
experience,  their  broader  possibilities  for  mischief.  It 
is  inevitable  that  their  ways  should  be  as  bad  as  before 
or  worse,  so  that  one  is  not  surprised,  when  reading 
the  returns  for  the  year  1894,  to  learn  that  sixty-four 
per  cent  of  the  offenders  who  had  been  committed  to 
reformatories  had  been  convicted  of  crime  two  or  more 
times.  It  must  be  so,  and  any  other  result  would  be 
illogical.  The  whole  train  of  causes  leads  up  to  this 
fact.  Other  elements  in  the  causation  of  crime  have  a 
similar  working.  Although  drunkenness  is  in  itself  no 
real  cause,  and  although  children,  vicious  or  otherwise, 
are  not  as  a  rule  given  to  drink,  nevertheless,  inebriety 
helps  to  make  the  environment  from  which  young  crimi- 
nals go  forth.  The  offspring  of  drunken  parents  are 
neglected,  are  demoralized  by  the  example  and  the  con- 
dition of  their  parents.  They  are  left  without  care  and 
support  at  a  time  when  these  things  are  as  necessary 
as  air  and  food.  And  naturally  enough,  they  pick  up 
their  living  in  the  manner  of  least  resistance.  This 
must  surely  lead  them  to  the  dock ;  it  accounts  for  the 
estimate  that  from  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent  of  youth- 


196  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ful  convicts  are  descended  from  parents  who  are  usually 
termed  drunkards.  Here  again  we  must  keep  in  mind 
that  alcohol  has  no  wondrous  and  special  working  of  its 
own  that  is  worse  than  any  other  agency.  It  is  no 
worse  in  its  results  than  certain  other  factors,  the 
abuse  of  which  leads  to  unsettling  the  mind  and  body. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  such  general  abuses  are  at 
work.  A  clear  view  of  the  physiological  development 
of  the  child  would  a  priori  convince  one  of  this  truth. 
But  the  proof  is  made  strong  when  one  reads  that  "  at 
least  eighty  in  every  hundred  of  parents  of  young  crimi- 
nals are  addicted  to  vicious,  if  not  criminal,  habits." 

It  is  not  in  mind  and  disposition  alone  that  children, 
by  growing  up  in  circumstances  of  neglect  and  chance, 
are  affected.  Their  bodies  at  the  same  time,  and  in 
somewhat  similar  ways,  are  retarded.  Naturally  these 
two  effects  must  act  upon  each  other,  making  abnormal 
growth  still  more  pronounced.  Thus  children  come  to 
have  weak  bodies,  not  so  much  from  heredity  as  from 
their  manner  of  life,  not  because  they  were  born  so,  but 
because  their  environment  kept  them  down.  One  may 
see  how  true  this  is  by  consulting  the  published  report 
of  the  Committee  of  the  British  Association  of  1883,  in 
regard  to  the  relative  statures  of  boys  between  the  ages 
of  eleven  and  twenty-two  in  the  population  at  large, 
and  in  that  of  the  industrial  and  reformatory  schools. 
'They  found  the  tallest  boys,  in  proportion  to  their 
;  age,  in  the  public  schools ;  below  them  came  the  boys 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 97 

in  the  so-called  middle-class  schools ;  then  those  in  the  'I 
elementary  schools  and  in  private  military  schools ;  and,  I 
last  of  all,  the  inmates  of  the  industrial  schools.  A 
still  more  sweeping  report  was  made  by  another  Com- 
mittee, which  stated  that  the  industrial  schools  showed 
a  greater  percentage  of  unnaturally  small  children  than 
any  other  class  in  the  whole  English  population. 
These  statements  are  rendered  much  more  vivid  by 
knowing  that  in  the  various  planes  mentioned  above 
there  was  a  difference  of  six  inches  in  stature  between 
the  first  and  the  last.  These  facts  are  pregnant  with 
meaning,  and  the  better  the  evidence  on  the  subject, 
the  more  positive  are  results.  Still  another  Commit- 
tee, the  Anthropometric  Committee  of  the  British  As- 
sociation, in  the  same  year  made  similar  researches  in 
regard  to  variations  in  weight.  Their  results  both  for 
boys  and  girls  coincided  most  closely  with  those  cited 
above.  At  any  age  between  six  and  sixteen  the  chil- 
dren of  the  industrial  schools  are  far  below  the  average  \A 
in  weight,  while  between  these  children  and  those  of 
the  population  at  large  there  was,  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen years,  a  difference  of  twenty-four  and  three-fourths  - 
pounds.  When  one  realizes  the  close  relationship  be- 
tween body  and  mind,  —  a  relationship  so  intimate  that 
no  man  can  say  where  it  begins  and  ends, — one  can 
see  the  full  importance  of  these  figures.  Dwarfed 
bodies,  as  a  rule,  mean  dwarfed  minds  and  souls,  poorly 
nourished  frames  do  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  a  clear 


198       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

and  normal  intellectual  and  moral  growth.  What  helps 
one  helps  the  other;  what  twists  and  weakens  one 
helps  to  debase  and  enfeeble  the  other.  Practical 
illustrations  of  this  may  be  seen  in  Dr.  Warner's 
researches,  which  state  that  about  one-third  of  all 
youthful  criminals  have  a  defective  mental  develop- 
ment.     From   my   own    experience,    which    has   been 

{  fairly  large,  I  believe  that  this  figure  underrates,  rather 

'  than  overrates,  the  fact. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  causation,  as 

'  well  as  the  management  of  pauperism,  vice  and  crime, 
stands  upon  a  foundation  of  physiology  and   anatomy, 

j  rather  than  unstable  metaphysics  and  emotions.  Such 
conditions  exist  in  accordance  with  definite  laws  of 
development ;  they  act  just  as  steadily  and  ruthlessly 
as  the  laws  of  gravitation,  of  the  conservation  of 
energy.  One  of  the  troubles  in  considering  the  mat- 
ter is  that  undue  stress  has  been  put  upon  heredity. 
Claims  have  been  made  for  it,  and  phenomena  have 
been  referred  to  it  that  rightly  belong  in  other  cate- 
gories. This  idea  has  been  so  used  that  it  serves  as  a 
scapegoat,  freeing  parents,  guardians  and  the  commu- 
nity from  a  responsibility  which  rightfully  rests  upon 
them.  When  a  child,  oppressed  by  hidden  or  open 
disease,  by  ignorance  and  neglect,  by  faulty  systems 
of  training,  shows  naturally  unfavorable  characteristics, 
the  guilt  is  promptly  laid  at  the  convenient  door  of 
hereditary  descent.     He  is  supposed  to  be  bad  because 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  1 99 

some  of  his  ancestors  failed  to  react  in  normal  ways  to 
the  stimtili  of  their  environment ;  the  signs  of  vicious- 
ness  in  his  life,  because  his  mother  or  grandmother, 
laboring  possibly  under  the  stress  of  thoughtlessness, 
ignorance,  or  lack  of  controlling  influences,  acted  in  a 
manner  that  society  does  not  consider  right  or  feasible, 
are  construed  to  indicate  an  irradicable  depravity  of 
temperament.  The  very  same  impulses,  or  the  charac- 
teristics from  which  they  spring,  may,  under  different 
auspices,  be  quite  easily  understood,  and  quite  as  easily 
accounted  for. 

The  exigencies  of  modem  civilization  are  quite  arti- 
ficial and  carry  with  them  their  special  changes  in  the 
organism.  Such  changes  must  be  certainly  felt  in  the 
cerebral  tissue,  and  once  felt,  the  person  in  his  ordinary 
life,  obeying  the  call  of  such  acquired  characteristics, 
acts  in  a  direct  and  logical  way,  without  regard  to 
where  that  way  may  lead  him.  A  cure  for  an  uneven 
development  lies  not  in  punishment,  imprisonment,  or 
ostracism,  —  all  of  which  are  bound  to  make  the  devel- 
opment still  more  uneven,  —  but  in  methods  which  will 
tend  to  abolish  these  artificial  disabilities,  which  will 
promote  a  normal  rounding  out  of  cerebral  growth, 
even  though  generations  of  effort  are  needed  to  pro- 
vide a  cumulative  force  that  will  be  sufficient  to  over- 
come the  effect  of  centuries  of  wrong  ideas  and  faulty 
methods.  A  withered  limb  is  thought  to  be  lightly  re- 
gained if  treatment  for  a  period  many  times  the  length 


200  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

of  the  original  pathological  process  is  finally  successful. 
And  there  is  no  inherent  reason  why  a  greater  patience 
and  hopefulness  should  not  be  used  where  the  nutrition 
of  the  nervous  system  is  concerned. 

That  this  question  of  nutrition  lies  at  the  very  base 
of  the  problem  there  is  the  best  reason  to  believe ; 
that  arrested  development  is  at  the  bottom  of  mental 
incapacity  we  know  for  a  certainty.  By  a  parity  of 
reasoning  and  experience,  the  opinion  that  it  is  of 
equal  importance  in  the  formation  of  character  must 
likewise  be  held.  Children  are  not  born  moral,  do  not 
become  cultured  and  educated  by  a  heaven-sent  gift  of 
I  intuition.  Besides  this,  there  is  very  little  of  spontane- 
ous endowment  in  the  matter.  The  process  is  one  of 
gradual  up-building,  of  an  unfolding  of  cerebral  cells. 
It  begins  with  the  very  beginning  of  the  being,  at 
the  moment  of  conception,  and  ends — no  one  knows 
exactly  where.  Disturbances  of  nutrition  occur  in 
obedience  to  known  as  well  as  unknown  causes. 
Those  which  result  in  physical  deformities  leave  their 
mark  so  plainly  that  they  have  been  freely  discussed. 
On  the  other  hand,  mental  and  psychical  impressions 
may  be  made  in  an  exactly  similar  way.  They  pro- 
duce deformities  quite  as  frequently,  although  they 
may  not  be  designated  by  this  name.  According  to 
manner  of  occurrence,  time,  duration  or  social  posi- 
tion, they  may  be  called  eccentricity,  crime,  weakness, 
rashness,  or  any  of  the  other  terms  which  we  give  to 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  201 

unusual  characteristics.  When  one  realizes  that  nutri- 
tion means  all  the  circumstances  of  life  which  affect 
tissue  change,  one  comes  to  feel  that  no  influence  is 
entirely  outside  of  its  limits.  Wrong  methods  of  feed- 
ing, of  rest,  of  amusements,  of  ordered  attention,  of  occu- 
pation, are  some  of  the  elements  which  help  to  make  a 
child  one-sided.  As  he  grows  older  the  opportunities 
for  divergence  in  his  development  increase  in  large 
degree.  With  increasing  activity  he  is  more  and  more 
allowed  to  follow  in  his  own  feebly  directed  desires, 
there  is  less  and  less  of  principle  and  a  correspondingly 
greater  amount  of  expediency  in  his  training.  These 
things,  as  we  know,  diminish  his  power  of  physical 
resistance  in  direct  ratio  to  the  extent  of  their  preva- 
lence. When  one  reads  that  "from  childhood  up  to 
manhood  the  delinquent  population  loses  a  higher  'pro- 
portion of  its  numbers  than  the  juvenile  population  as 
a  whole,"  one  has  the  statement  of  facts  in  gross,  but 
the  principle  back  of  it  applies  to  every  child  in  the 
community.  While  it  is  true  that  the  abuses  in 
question  are  greatest  in  quantity  and  quality  among 
the  most  unfavorable  portion  of  people,  nevertheless, 
they  are  scattered  in  varying  frequency  in  practi- 
cally all  circles,  and  their  results  are  in  like  manner 
discriminated. 

As  Dugdale  most  wisely  said,  "  Environment  is  the 
ultimate  controlling  factor  in  determining  careers." 
For  environment  is  the  steady  source  of  sense-impres- 


202  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

sions  which,  if  repeated  sufficiently  often,  produce 
permanent  states  of  mind.  Of  course  there  are  many 
cases  of  a  congenital  condition  of  varying  develop- 
ment in  function  and  nutrition.  And  where  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  child  are  not  of  the  wisest,  these 
aberrations  become  still  more  exaggerated.  It  is  in 
such  cases  that  there  is  most  need  to  find  out  not 
only  what  variations  are  present,  but  also  to  arrange 
every  influence  that  comes  in  contact  with  him  to  the 
end  of  making  the  balance  of  faculties  even.  It  is 
not  in  the  lowest  classes  alone  that  such  dispropor- 
tions exist,  nor  are  the  limits  of  viciousness  necessarily 
bound  to  those  of  indictable  crime.  In  every  grade 
of  life  one  finds  the  best  evidence  of  inharmonious 
Igrowth.  The  wealthy  rake,  the  intellectual  crank,  the 
heartless  egoist,  the  useless  idler,  are  all  subjects  of 
the  disease  of  disproportion  in  cerebral  development. 
The  symptoms  vary  according  to  the  particular  com- 
bination of  nerve  cells  and  the  environment  in  which 
the  person  has  lived.  The  criminal's  course  is  bio- 
logically, although  not  forensically,  similar.  In  most 
cases  there  is  no  inherent  reason  why  he  should  be 
markedly  vicious.  Naturally  this  statement  does  not 
include  the  cases,  which  unquestionably  occur  at  times, 
of  a  seemingly  spontaneous  viciousness,  a  congenital 
moral  blindness,  a  crime-tendency  by  intuition.  Al- 
though such  cases  are  rare,  nevertheless,  their  exist- 
ence may  not  be  denied.     In  the  same  way,  physicig-ns 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  203 

occasionally  see  cases  of  antenatal  deformity,  babies 
born  without  limbs,  or  eyes,  or  any  other  portion  of 
the  body.  The  occurrence  of  these  pitiful  curiosities 
does  not  invalidate  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority  of 
losses  of  limbs  and  eyes  is  due  to  known,  observed 
and  preventable  causes.  It  requires  no  argument  to 
prove  that  preventable  disasters  throw  upon  the  re- 
sponsible guardian  a  heavy  burden  of  guilt.  In  similar 
ways  one  may  show  that  the  person  with  a  deformed 
and  maimed  character  has  not  himself  alone  to  blame 
for  the  misfortune. 

It  is  a  regrettable  fact  that  one  does  not  often  find 
families  where  the  best  provision  is  made  against  pre- 
ventable disasters  in  character.  What  children  seei 
and  hear,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad,  they  will  imitate,  j 
They  learn  the  lessons  of  their  life  not  so  much  from 
books,  sermons  or  lectures,  as  from  practical  demon- 
stration. A  household  which  is  characterized  by 
vicious  habits  of  mind  and  body  brings  forth  a  brood 
of  children  that  are  fit  to  hold  the  community  as 
their  proper  prey.  Year  by  year,  as  example  makes 
a  progressively  stronger  impress,  they  become  more 
inclined  to  harmful  lives  and  ideals.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  one  finds  offences  increasing  as  maturity 
approaches.  Any  species  of  training  is  more  thor- 
oughly absorbed  by  a  child  of  seven  years  than  one 
of  five  years.  By  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  is  not  only 
more  capable  of  action,  but  also  his  mental  processes 


204       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

are  more  thoroughly  crystallized.  When  he  reaches 
maturity  only  a  moral  revolution  can  change  his  ways 
of  thinking  and  acting.  In  the  ordinary  family  circle 
I  an  analogous  process  is  constantly  working :  ideals  of 
1  speech,  of  demeanor,  of  morals,  are  absorbed  just  as 
surely  as  dry  sand  sucks  up  water.  The  child  repre- 
sents in  his  future  growth  what  his  imitative  faculty 
has  fed  upon.  If  he  has  lived  where  deceit  is  prac- 
tised, where  courtesy  is  an  article  of  luxury,  where 
metaphorically  speaking  people  go  about  in  their  moral 
slippers,  where  above  all  he  notices  that  one  code  of 
conduct  is  practised  at  home  while  quite  another  is 
publicly  advocated,  he  is  quite  unable  to  realize  in  his 
later  self  a  high  standard  of  ethical  bearing. 

A  parent  has  more  to  do  than  merely  provide  for  his 
child's   physical   wants   and   his   educational   needs  as 
regulated  by  state  limitations ;  indeed,  these  things  are 
not  the  most  important.     In  addition  he  should  feel 
'  himself  bound  to  set  a  model  and  provide  an  atmos- 
j  phere  that  stands  for  the  best  ideal  which  he  is  able  to 
'  conceive.     The  training  consists  not  so  much  in  formal 
expositions  of  duty  as  in  the  daily  practice,  the  hourly 
practice,  of  them.     He  is  bound  to  feel  that  he  has  in 
I  himself  the  powers  and  the  responsibilities  of  a  maker, 
a  creator.     Every  faculty  and  every  possibility  in  him 
he  must  regard  as  glorified,  because  from  them  may 
start  streams  of  moral  energy  which  are  bound  to  in- 
crease with  their  duration  in  time.     Such  doctrine  has 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD-CRIMINAL  20$ 

often  been  looked  upon  as  proper  to  the  pulpit ;  and  it 
may  be,  but  simply  in  the  measure  that  all  right  con- 
duct should  be  similarly  treated.  Outside  of  this,  how- 
ever, so  long  as  it  is  founded  upon  known  principles  of 
psychological  growth,  it  has  a  real  bearing  upon  the 
proper  training  and  treatment  of  children  in  everyday 
life,  it  has  a  definite  biological  importance.  There  is 
as  much  need  for  the  expert  in  pediatrics  to  include  it 
in  a  scheme  for  the  bringing  up  of  children  as  there  is 
to  work  out  the  need  for  a  proper  method  of  feeding, 
a  proper  care  of  the  eyes,  or  any  subject  involving  a 
light  ordering  of  the  physical  economy. 

One  of  the  most  revered  East  Indian  theologies  has 
an  article  of  its  teaching  which  inculcates  the  idea  of  a 
permeating  individual  responsibility  in  every  phase  of 
life.  It  holds  that  no  word,  no  thought,  no  act,  —  in 
short,  no  circumstance  in  life,  no  matter  how  minute 
and  trivial  it  may  be,  —  but  has  its  definite  share  in 
making  up  the  sum  of  existence.  That  the  character- 
istic results  are  not  immediately  apparent  is  no  reason 
for  losing  sight  of  the  antecedent  causes,  any  more 
than  one  should  be  sceptical  about  the  origin  of  elec- 
trical manifestations  because  the  generating  cause  can- 
not be  seen.  Human  senses  are  gross,  and  human 
reason,  in  most  cases,  is  not  over-  fine ;  and  a  depend- 
ence upon  their  spontaneous  cooperation  and  approba- 
tion is  too  often  unreliable.  We  are  apt  to  grasp  at 
generalizations  with  which  we    have   become  familiar 


206  THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE  CHILD 

and  to  consider  that  outside  of  this  there  is  no  truth. 
Thus,  for  instance,  by  constant  iteration  we  have  come 
to  beHeve  that  various  social  evils  are  caused  by  crowd- 
ing many  inhabitants  into  a  comparatively  small  space. 
We  forget  the  very  important  fact  that,  in  the  main, 
evil  results  start  from  this  condition  only  in  the  pres- 
ence of  industrial  and  economic  instability.  It  is,  on 
the  other  hand,  unquestionably  true  that  a  crowded 
population  living  in  economic  and  industrial  stability 
is  much  better  than  a  sparse  one  in  equally  uncertain 
conditions.  The  same  principle  may  be  applied  all 
through  life  to  the  main  question  of  culpability :  chil- 
dren, as  a  rule,  act  out  in  their  lives  the  influences 
which  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  Their 
natural  faculties  are  modifiable  and  are  modified  by 
their  environment  to  such  an  extent  that,  in  the  main, 
responsibility  for  their  careers  is  largely  due  to  the 
influences  in  which  they  have  spent  the  most  plastic 
years  of  their  life. 


CHAPTER   IX 

The   Child's   Development   as  a   Factor   in   pro- 
ducing THE   Genius   or  the   Defective 

The  study  of  biology  brings  with  it  a  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  animal  life,  in  its  various  orders  and 
species,  develops  unevenly,  that  the  fruition  of  this 
development  —  useful  and  matured  action  —  grows  in 
ways  that  are  peculiar  to  each  kind.  Moreover,  we 
know,  as  has  been  stated  in  an  earlier  part  of  this 
work,  that  the  higher  the  organism  the  longer  does  it 
require  to  attain  a  full  development  of  its  capabilities. 

So  low  a  form  as  amoeba  comes  into  existence  and 
attains  full  organic  and  functional  maturity  at  the  same 
time.  As  one  ascends  in  the  scale  of  life,  one  finds 
not  only  a  progressively  longer  period  between  birth 
and  maturity,  but  also  a  progressively  greater  interval 
between  organic  and  functional  growth.  As  Clouston 
puts  it :  "  The  difference  between  what  the  brain  of  a 
child  of  eight  and  the  brain  of  a  man  of  twenty-five 
can  do  and  can  resist  is  quite  indescribable.  The 
organ  at  these  two  periods  might   belong   to  two  dif- 

207 


208  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ferent  species  of  animals  so  far  as  its  essential  qualities 
go."  At  a  glance  one  can  see  how  important  in  regu- 
lating one's  ideas  of  growth  this  rule  is,  but  the  whole 
story  is  not  yet  stated.  Even  after  the  main  necessi- 
ties of  organic  form  exist,  a  long  time  is  required  be- 
fore the  active  and  efficient  working  power  comes  into 
play.  The  biologist  is  deeply  impressed  by  the  remark- 
able fact  that  the  nerve  cell  requires  a  long  time,  even 
after  it  reaches  its  full  bulk,  to  grow  into  the  full  exer- 
cise of  its  ultimate  powers.  "We  may  say  that  after 
most  of  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  have  attained  their 
proper  shape  and  size,  it  takes  them  the  enormous  time 
of  eighteen  or  nineteen  years  to  attain  such  functional 
perfection  as  they  are  to  arrive  at." 

One  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  main  business  of 
a  nerve  cell  is  to  elaborate  energy.  This  process  is 
the  result  of  chemical  decomposition  of  cell  contents, 
a  result  which  constitutes  in  part  the  phenomenon  of 
physiological  metabolism.  In  so  far  as  this  metabo- 
lism is  normal  and  healthful,  energy  is  stored  up, 
which  expresses  itself  in  ways  that  are  characteristic 
of  the  cell  activities.  The  quantity  of  energy  to  be 
disposed  of  does  not  necessarily  depend  upon  the 
quantity  of  waste  or  decomposition  in  the  cell.  In- 
deed, one  regularly  finds  a  progressively  great  amount 
in  proportion  to  the  immaturity  of  the  acting  cells. 
In  the  cortical  cells  of  the  infant  or  the  defective  per- 
son of  greater  age   (whose  condition  approximates  to 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  209 

that  of  the  infant)  one  finds  a  comparatively  large 
production  of  chemical  metabolism.  Such  cells  are 
thus  in  a  condition  of  natural  instability  which  for 
very  small  causes  assumes  a  phase  of  irritability  ;  this 
is  commonly  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  exciting 
cause.  In  such  a  way  pathological  action  is  easy  of 
occurrence  and  may  be  really  serious  in  results.  It 
is  difficult  enough  for  these  cells  to  work  normally, 
to  make  and  direct  sufficient  energy  to  respond  to 
normal  impulses  in  normal  ways ;  and  on  account  of 
this  difficulty,  abnormal  and  pathological  development 
or  arrest  of  development  is  and  ought  to  be  corre- 
spondingly easy. 

This  is  true  not  only  theoretically  but  also  practi- 
cally ;  and  one  can  see  proofs  of  it  in  any  clinic  for 
nervous  diseases.  As  Sachs  says :  "  During  the  pe- 
riod of  incomplete  development  the  nervous  system 
responds  much  more  energetically  to  morbid  influences 
than  it  does  in  later  years."  As  the  nervous  system 
grows  older  and  attains  a  greater  degree  of  functional 
independence,  the  amount  of  energy  produced  is  more 
directly  in  ratio  with  the  amount  of  chemical  change.  .' 
Likewise,  we  know  that  chemical  decomposition  can 
come  about  only  when  there  is  a  sufficiently  large 
supply  of  material  to  work  upon.  This  material  must 
be  constantly  renewed  through  the  regular  channels 
of  nourishment,  of  assimilating  convertible  substances 
which  are  able  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  cell.     There- 


2IO  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

fore  one  would  expect  greater  energy,  other  things 
being  equal,  from  a  well  fed  cell  and  less  energy  from 
a  poorly  fed  one.  So  far  as  this  view  is  concerned, 
it  makes  little  difference  whether  the  cell  in  question 
is  nourished  equally  with  other  cells  or  whether  it 
absorbs  nutrition  at  the  expense  of,  and  to  the  exclu- 
sion of,  other  cells.  In  the  first  case,  there  would  be 
a  general  ability  to  elaborate  characteristic  energy,  in 
the  second  there  would  be  a  disproportionate,  a  one- 
sided development.  The  first  would  have  greater  all- 
round  growth,  the  second  would  have  a  smaller  growth 
or  an  atrophy  in  one  part  with  a  greater  growth  or 
hypertrophy  in  another. 

Another  function  of  nerve  cells  is  that  of  discharging 
the  energy  stored  up.  When  each  cell  or  group  of 
cells  discharges  its  force  in  a  manner  that  carries 
out  the  special  reason  for  its  existence,  we  have  as 
a  result  the  normal  and  ordinary  working  of  all  the 
parts  of  the  body.  When  one  group  of  cells  discharges 
a  greater  amount  of  energy  than  its  normal  share,  a 
lack  of  balance  results  which  shows  itself,  as  a  rule, 
throughout  the  whole  organism.  Thus  we  know  that 
the  action  of  the  heart  is  heightened  by  the  so-called 
accelerator  nerves  and  lowered  by  the  so-called  de- 
pressor nerves  or  nerve  cells.  These  two  sets,  by  their 
harmonious  interaction,  regulate  the  work  of  the  heart 
muscle  so  that  it  adjusts  itself  easily  to  all  the  varying 
changes  of  blood  pressure,  heat  dissipation,  and  all  the 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  211 

Other  multiform  physiological  phenomena  that  properly 
belong  to  it.  If  in  consequence  of  the  over-nutrition 
of  one  group,  or  too  great  a  discharge  of  energy,  the 
balance  of  developmental  power  is  not  maintained,  there 
must  come  about  a  deviation  from  normal  work  and 
nutrition,  with  characteristic  symptoms  of  the  disorder. 

The  same  idea  holds  good  in  all  matters  of  control, 
whether  reflex,  automatic,  or  voluntary.  And  in  ex- 
actly the  same  way  that  muscular  action  and  muscular 
tone  are  controlled,  just  so  the  parts  of  the  nervous 
system,  which  by  their  exercise  supply  thought,  work 
out  their  purpose.  Every  part  of  this  system  is  subject 
to  these  same  laws,  so  that  there  can  be  no  difference 
in  the  elaboration  of  energy  no  matter  what  its  ultimate 
mode  of  expression  may  be.  Thus  the  cells  whose 
energy  goes  towards  providing  the  basis  for  the  moral 
thought  of  a  man,  are  subject  to  the  same  laws  as 
those  which  provide  the  basis  of  the  more  exclusively 
intellectual  processes.  Considerations  which  encourage 
or  discourage  one  affect  the  other  in  like  manner. 

There  is  another  fact  to  be  kept  in  mind,  and  it 
concerns  the  fact  of  systematic  inhibition.  All  through 
the  central  nervous  system  there  are  cells  and  groups 
of  cells  which  have  the  function  of  retarding  and  blunt- 
ing the  more  positive  energy  developed  by  others, 
and  in  certain  cells  of  a  high  type  both  negative  and 
positive  functions  are  present.  Thus  we  find  that  all 
through  the  nervous  tissue  there  run  series  of  counter- 


212      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

checking  influences,  whose  nice  equilibrium  means  fine 
adjustment  of  potentiahty.  When  one  factor  or  an- 
other is  out  of  proportion,  a  one-sided  action  must 
result.     Also  we  find  that  the  restraining  or  inhibitory 

)^  function  is  the  last  to  develop.  This  is  chronologically 
correct,  for  a  restraining  force  has  no  reason  for  its 
existence  until  the  energy  which  it  is  meant  to  restrain 
is  really  present.  In  the  same  logical  chronology  we 
find  that  the  vital  automatic  processes,  heart  and  lungs, 
have  their  inhibitory  force  ready  to  act  approximately 
well  at  birth ;  the  various  somatic  reflexes  blossom 
out  in  their  turn,  while  the  more  clearly  intellectual 

y  are  the  last  of  all  to  come  to  maturity.  In  childhood 
disturbances  of  inhibition  are  oftenest  found,  and  like- 
wise, for  this  reason,  one  finds  in  childhood  a  great 
tendency  to  neurotic  action,  which  works  in  the  way 
of  making  the  abnormal  child.  Even  when  the  centres 
of  these  reflexes  have  attained  their  approximate  form, 
their  energy  is  discharged  more  easily,  more  irregularly, 
more  capriciously,  than  in  the  adult.  When  the  envi- 
ronment, the  general  nutrition,  of  the  child  is  imperfect, 
the  instability  of  the  nervous  state  is  increased,  and 
abnormal  action  is  more  likely.  Such  abnormal  action, 
as  was  mentioned  above,  may  consist  in  a  general 
weakness,  a  partial  weakness,  or  a  partial  weakness 
associated  with  a  partial  overgrowth.  All  three  con- 
ditions are  unfortunate,  for  they  mean  limited  possi- 
bilities in  accomplishing  the  full  objects  of  life. 


THE  GENIUS  AND   THE   DEFECTIVE  213 

This  much  one  must  have  clearly  in  mind  when  con- 
sidering the  defective  and  the  genius  among  children. 
Then  one  gradually  comes  to  see  that  there  is  no 
sharp  line  between  them,  that  there  is  a  bourne  where 
the  dull  black  of  idiocy  and  the  brilliant  white  of 
unusually  great  mental  power  meet  and  blend  in  the 
quiet  gray  of  the  commonplace.  As  Seguin  says,  idiocy 
is  "an  infirmity  of  the  nervous  system  which  has  for 
its  effect  the  abstraction  of  the  whole  or  part  of  the 
organs  and  the  faculties  of  the  child  from  the  normal 
action  of  the  will."  This  abstraction  comes  as  the 
result  of  arrested  development,  of  insufficient  nutrition, 
and  should  not  be  looked  upon  as  an  inevitable  and 
immovable  thing  which  occurs  regularly  in  the  course 
of  descent,  like  curly  hair,  or  full  stature,  or  like 
certain  specific  diseases.  The  more  one  sees  of  de- 
fective children,  the  more  one  is  impressed  with  the 
striking  fact  that  physical  elements  play  an  important 
part  in  the  production  and  continuance  of  psychical 
and  intellectual  impotence.  Given  certain  impaired 
cells,  and  the  equilibrium  of  cells  throughout  the  body 
is  shaken.  Given  a  tuberculous  condition,  the  most 
common  disability  with  which  unfortunates  have  to 
contend,  and  the  chances  of  good  mental  growth  are 
greatly  lessened. 

The  effects  of  such  a  condition  are  so  marked  that 
Shuttleworth,  as  the  result  of  experience  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  with  defective  children,  says:  "A  phthis- 


214  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ical   family   history   is,    indeed,    a   predominant   factor 
traceable  in  our   cases,  the   percentage   in  which   this 
was    found    being    twenty-eight    and    thirty-one    hun- 
dredths,   against    twenty-one    and    twenty-eight    hun- 
dredths in  which  hereditary  mental  weakness  (insanity 
or  imbecility)  was  recorded."    Again,  Dr.  Ireland  states 
that     "  perhaps  two-thirds,  or  even  more,  of  all  idiots 
^  are  of  the  scrofulous  constitution."     Tuberculosis  acts 
in  this  way  not  because  it  has  an  especial  relation  to 
mental  weakness,  but   merely  because   it   undermines 
and  wears  out  the  general  physical  constitution.     The 
[  resulting  condition  is  one  of  lowered  nutrition,  which 
'  affects  every  cell   in   the   body.     On  the  other   hand, 
where,  in  the  presence  of  a  tuberculous  predisposition, 
adequate  means  of  controlling  the  diathesis  are  used, 
there   is   every   reason   to   believe   that   not   only  will 
the  general  condition  be   kept  at  a  normal  standard, 
but  also  the  tendency  to  impaired   intellectual   power 
will  be  checked.     The  two  things  have  the  close  rela- 
tion of  cause  and  effect,  and  cannot  well  be  separated. 
With   increasing   experience  with   these   cases,   one 
sees  more  and   more   reason   for  believing  in  a   lack 
\  of  nutrition  as  the  ultimate  cause  of  defective  mental 
'  growth.     In  an  analysis  of  English  cases,  fully  thirty 
per  cent  were  attributed  to  ill-health  in  the  mother,  to 
injuries,  to  accidents,  to  shock  during  the  period  of  ges- 
tation, all  of  which  may  be  regarded  as  means  of  lowers 
ing  vitality  in  the  offspring.     This  is  one-half  again  as 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  21$ 

much  as  were  caused  by  an  epileptic  and  neurotic 
descent,  where  there  might  be  ground  for  a  belief  in 
an  hereditary  predisposition  or  transmission.  I  regard 
this  belief  as  problematical,  for  there  are  the  best  of 
reasons  for  holding  that  neurotic  and  epileptic  con- 
ditions stand  for  impoverished  nervous  conditions,  i 
whether  they  are  joined  to  equally  poor  somatic  states 
or  not.  So  long  as  this  is  the  case,  the  progeny  of 
persons  so  constituted  could  not  be  expected  to  be 
strong.  Here  again  there  is  the  rigid  relation  of 
cause  and  effect. 

Some  of  the  familiar  causes  are  most  to  be  re- 
spected for  their  age,  rather  than  their  strict  con- 
formity with  ascertained  truth.  For  instance,  there  is 
a  common  belief  that  consanguinity  of  parents  is  a 
potent  factor  in  the  causality  of  idiocy  and  allied  con- 
ditions. But  in  the  analysis  of  English  cases  referred 
to,  less  than  five  per  cent  seem  to  be  capable  of  such  a 
classification.  And  even  in  this  small  percentage,  the 
main  tendency  which  one  can  see  is  a  risk  of  intensify- 
ing family  weaknesses.  Another  time-honored  cause  — 
intemperance  in  the  parents  —  seems  to  be  responsible 
for  only  about  sixteen  per  cent  of  the  whole  number. 
And  in  this  case,  again,  one  has  to  decide  whether  the 
intemperance  itself  was  the  real  cause,  or  whether  the 
lowered  vitality  which  preceded,  accompanied,  or  fol- 
lowed the  excess,  should  be  blamed.  In  the  latter 
case,   the    decision   would    once   more   rest   with    the 


2l6      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

fact  of  impaired  nutrition  as  the  primal  cause ;  and 
intemperance  would  take  its  place  with  a  multitude 
of  other  factors  as  merely  a  means  for  inducing  cyto- 
plasmic poverty.  Therefore,  one  is  not  at  all  sur- 
prised in  reading  an  authoritative  opinion  to  this 
effect :  "  Not  every  drunken  parent  procreates  an 
idiot ;  but  when  inherited  nervous  instability  from  this 
or  other  causes  is  intensified  in  the  next  generation  by 
injudicious  marriage,  or  by  unfavorable  environment, 
instances  of  mental  degeneracy  are  apt  to  occur." 

Even  in  so  low  a  condition  as  microcephalus, — a 
state  so  low  as  to  have  simian  and  even  theroid  re- 
semblances, —  the  only  cause  that  one  can  find  is 
something  which  lowers  the  vital  nutrition  of  the 
child  before  birth.  Whether  it  is  the  general  health 
and  strength  of  the  mother,  or  the  wise  conduct  of 
her  everyday  life,  whether  it  inheres  in  some  nervous 
shock  or  the  strain  from  physical  exhaustion,  is  very 
hard  to  say.  At  all  events,  we  know  that  the  con- 
dition does  not  necessarily  follow  any  broad  path  of 
heredity ;  and  on  the  other  hand  we  are  quite  as  sure 
that  any  of  the  alternatives  mentioned  above,  as  well 
as  other  causes  working  in  similar  ways,  must  be  at 
the  root  of  the  trouble.  The  question  of  responsi- 
bility and  the  possibility  of  avoiding  this  blight  is 
one  that  naturally  springs  into  the  mind.  But  I  pre- 
fer to  leave  it  undiscussed,  at  least  for  the  present. 
The  main  fact,  however,  is  to  recognize   that   mental 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  21/ 

defects  are  due  to  poor  work  in  the  making  and  the  i 
rearing  of  cell  tissue,  that  they  are  of  varying  degree  I 
according  to  the  severity  of  the  causes  at  work,  and 
that  the  differences  between  them  are  differences  in 
degree  rather  than  of  kind.  Likewise,  it  is  well 
known  that  the  injury  may  not  be  a  general  one ;  for 
every  observer  has  noticed  that  certain  parts  of  the 
cerebral  tissue  may  be  of  lower  development  or  vital- 
ity than  others,  and  that  the  location  of  the  vicious 
development  comes  about  according  to  events  of  which 
we  may  be  ignorant. 

Even  in  the  lowest  grade  of  human  beings  one  finds 
at  times  a  surprising  keenness  and  activity  in  certain 
parts  of  the  brain,  while  the  remaining  portions  may  be 
remarkably  crude.  Thus  Seguin  describes  "  idiots  who 
discriminated  species  of  woods  and  stones  merely  by 
smell  without  having  recourse  to  sight " ;  at  the  same 
time  the  other  senses  were  very  obtuse  and  unequal. 
Ascending  somewhat  higher  in  the  scale,  one  might 
instance  such  cases  as  that  of  very  low  savages,  as  for 
example  the  African  Bushmen,  whose  intellectual  devel- 
opment is  exceedingly  small,  but  who,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  a  special  gift  in  hearing  or  smell  that  is 
truly  wonderful.  Or,  one  might  take  such  striking 
cases  as  that  of  Blind  Tom,  a  negro,  born  of  common 
slaves,  whose  general  mentality  was  that  of  an  idiot, 
but  whose  musical  gifts  were  so  extraordinary  as  to 
entrance   thousands    of  people   who   heard   him.      Or, 


2l8  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

again,  one  might  mention  the  German  "  Lightning 
Calculator,"  Dase,  who  possessed  very  wonderful  mathe- 
matical faculties  joined  with  a  general  intellectual  de- 
velopment that  was  pitiably  meagre.  Such  cases  exist 
in  striking  numbers.  They  fortify  the  opinion  that 
intellectual  power  is,  seemingly,  distributed  vicariously, 
that  good  and  bad,  high  or  low,  may  go  together,  that 
intentional  or  unintentional  disadvantages  will  lower 
the  nutrition,  and  so  the  function  of  any  part ;  while 
conversely,  intentional  or  unintentional  advantages  will 
heighten  both  nutrition  and  function. 

There  is  still  another  fact  of  great  importance,  that 
one  should  keep  in  mind.  It  is  the  possibility  of  im- 
proving a  defective  mental  condition  by  the  various 
means  that  will  provide  strength  for  the  weakened 
tissue,  that  will  nourish  starved  cells,  that  will  awaken 
the  parts  which  sleep  in  what  seems  to  be  a  death-like 
slumber.  The  means  for  doing  this  are  gradually  be- 
coming known,  and  with  this  greater  knowledge  better 
results  are  obtained.  A  strong  indication  of  what  may 
be  done  is  given  by  the  improvement  which  comes  with 
the  change  from  bad  to  good  sanitary  surroundings. 
When  so  elementary  a  matter  as  proper  sanitation  can 
change  a  defective  to  a  higher  order  of  person,  a  world 
of  light  is  by  implication  thrown  upon  the  subject  of 
intellectual  growth.  That  such  a  change  can  be 
accomplished  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  for  we  have  as 
testimony  the  work  of  Geggenbiihl  and  his  remarkable 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  219 

success  in  treating  cretins  by  a  change  of  surroundings. 
The  unfortunate  creatures,  who  in  the  dull  and  shad- 
owed valleys  of  the  Alps  were  but  little  better  than 
beasts,  became  vastly  improved,  vastly  higher  in  gen- 
eral capabilities  when  removed  to  the  bracing  air,  the 
generous  sunshine  and  the  exhilarating  freedom  of  the 
Abendberg.  In  the  same  way  that  weakened  lungs, 
feeble  muscles,  shrunken  limbs  may  be  helped,  brain 
tissue  may  be  improved  organically  and  functionally.] 
Moreover,  possible  improvement  is  not  confined  to  any 
special  part  of  the  organism.  Any  tissue,  no  matter 
at  what  stage  the  developmental  impulse  has  been 
arrested,  may  under  proper  environment  be  made  to 
take  on  an  added  growth  and  a  stronger  vitality. 
When  Seguin  was  Director  of  the  Asylum  for  idiots  at 
Bicetre,  he  wrote  a  report  of  his  experience  that  was 
not  only  interesting,  but  also  deeply  instructive. 
"Idiots,"  he  said,  "have  been  improved,  educated,  and 
even  cured ;  not  one  in  a  thousand  has  been  entirely 
refractory  to  treatment ;  not  one  in  a  hundred  who  has 
not  been  made  more  happy  and  healthy ;  more  than 
thirty  per  cent  have  been  taught  to  conform  to  moral 
and  social  law,  and  rendered  capable  of  order,  of  good 
feeling,  and  of  working  like  the  third  of  a  man  ;  more 
than  forty  per  cent  have  become  capable  of  the 
ordinary  transactions  of  life  under  friendly  control, 
of  understanding  moral  and  social  abstractions,  of 
working  like   two-thirds    of   a    man ;    and    twenty-five 


220  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

to  thirty  per  cent  have  come  nearer  and  nearer  the 
standard  of  manhood,  till  some  of  them  will  defy 
the  scrutiny  of  good  judges  when  compared  with 
ordinary  young  men  and  women." 

All  this  constitutes  a  marvellous  change  from  the 
time  when  Howard  in  plain  terms  pilloried  the  shock- 
ing customs  that  existed  in  prisons  and  asylums.  Such 
institutions  then  were  veritable  plague-spots  of  vice, 
misery,  inhuman  cruelty.  Low  mental  conditions  be- 
came still  lower,  the  defective  was  regarded  as  a  wild 
beast  whose  proper  care,  because  his  condition  was  con- 
sidered permanent  and  incapable  of  improvement,  con- 
sisted in  annihilating  and  crushing  subjection.  More 
than  one  man  in  going  from  one  of  these  cages  to 
another  traveled  on  horseback,  that  his  clothes  might 
lose  the  stench  with  which  they  were  impregnated. 
Physical  abuses  and  degeneration  went  hand  in  hand 
with  mental.  And  the  creature  who  was  cursed  with 
a  palpable  psychical  infirmity  would  have  been  more 
fortunate  to  have  lived  in  the  rigorous  days  of  Lacedae- 
mon  when  such  as  he  were  summarily  killed  off. 
Nevertheless,  the  customs  and  opinions  of  a  century 
ago  have  not  been  quite  stamped  out.  The  general 
public  still  feel  the  inertia  of  by-gone  ideas.  They  still 
regard  the  defective  as  a  being  who  is  comparable  to  a 
man  born  without  limbs  and  without  all  necessary 
viscera,  whose  state  is  fixed  as  that  of  a  lightning- 
blasted  tree  or  a  bare  and  sterile  rock.     They  do  not 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  221 

keep  in  mind  that  in  speaking  of  the  feeble-minded 
they  must  include,  as  Dr.  Firnald  does,  "all  degrees 
and  types  of  congenital  defect,  from  that  of  the  simply 
backward  boy  or  girl,  but  little  below  the  normal  stand- 
ard of  intelligence,  to  the  profound  idiot,  a  helpless, 
speechless,  disgusting  burden,  with  every  degree  of 
deficiency  between  these  extremes."  They  do  not 
understand  that  there  can  be  no  clear  line  of  division 
between  these  classes,  and  that  since  there  is  no  such 
line  there  must  consequently  be  the  possibility  of 
developing  and  reclaiming  all  in  some  varying  degree, 
so  long  as  there  is  a  possible  improvement  in  any. 

The  natural  conclusion,  then,  is  that  the  various 
means  of  improvement,  whether  ante-  or  post-  natal, 
are  adventitious,  are  with  growing  knowledge  capable 
of  control.  Even  the  degree  of  reclamation  is  not 
fixed,  the  limit  of  yesterday  being  found  to-day  quite 
inadequate  to  mark  off  the  extremes  of  possibility. 
When  one  reads  in  the  last  national  census  that  there 
were  in  the  United  States  in  1890,  nearly  one  hundred 
thousand  "  idiotic  and  feeble-minded  persons,"  that 
"taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  there  are  two  feeble- 
minded persons  to  every  thousand  persons,"  one  is 
well-nigh  overwhelmed  by  this  burden  of  helpless 
misery,  inefficiency  and  misfortune  that  might  in  some 
degree  be  avoided.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a 
beginning  in  solving  the  problem  has  been  made, 
although  it  is  nothing  more  than  a   beginning.      One 


222  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

begins  to  have  hope  when  one  reads  in  the  first 
report  of  the  trustees  of  the  State  Asylum  at  Syra- 
cuse :  "  At  the  base  of  all  our  efforts  lies  the  principle 
that,  as  a  rule,  none  of  the  faculties  are  (is)  abso- 
lutely wanting,  but  dormant,  undeveloped,  and  imper- 
fect," And  the  hope  is  continued  when  one  reads 
the  two  rules  promulgated  at  Bicetre  :  "To  exercise 
the  imperfect  organs  so  as  to  develop  their  functions," 
and  "To  train  the  functions  so  as  to  develop  the  im- 
perfect organs." 

If,  then,  no  line  between  degrees  of  mental  defi- 
ciency may  be  drawn,  if,  moreover,  the  deficiency  may, 
on  account  either  of  invigorating  environment  or  natu- 
ral endowment,  be  so  slight  that  there  is  no  appre- 
ciable difference  between  it  and  the  general  average 
of  intelligence,  then  it  follows  that  the  so-called 
normal  state  cannot  be  sharply  marked  off,  and  is 
indeed  incapable  of  sharp  definition.  All  that  one 
means  by  the  phrase,  "average"  or  "normal,"  is,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  possession  of  a  general  amount  of 
cellular  nutrition  by  which  the  person  is  able  to  do 
sufficient  work  to  support  himself,  as  well  as  to  absorb 
sufficient  discipline  to  make  himself  a  bearable  mem- 
ber of  the  society  in  which  he  lives ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  definition  goes  so  far  as  to  include  a  well- 
rounded  and  able-bodied  intellectual  impulse  that 
enables  the  possessor  to  make  a  definite  and  respected 
place  for  himself  in   the  world.      Between   these  ex- 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  223 

treraes  there  are  very  many  grades,  and  men  ascend 
or  descend  from  one  to  another  slowly,  but  neverthe- 
less with  a  fair  amount  of  ease.  The  character  of 
their  environment  goes  very  far  to  lay  out  the  paths 
which  they  are  to  follow.  For  the  large  majority  of 
people  are  endowed  in  their  mental  constitutions  very 
much  as  in  their  physical ;  they  have  sufficient  nutri- 
tional activity  to  carry  out  the  demands  of  the  life  in 
which  they  have  grown  up,  and  not  much  besides. 
In  this  way  one  can  understand  how  it  is  that  but  few 
men  can  possibly  be  ahead  of  their  time,  how  a  fact 
which  seems  so  simple  as  to  be  almost  trivial  would 
to  our  ancestors  have  appeared  as  a  wild  flight  of  the 
imagination.  An  ordinary  school-boy  of  to-day  ab- 
sorbs with  ease  knowledge  which  would  have  been 
exceedingly  difficult  for  an  Elizabethan  to  acquire. 
Physical  phenomena  upon  which  the  use  of  steam 
and  electricity  are  based,  ideas  which  underlie  freedom 
and  universal  suffrage,  theories  of  art  and  religion, 
which  would  have  been  almost  impossible  for  the 
seventeenth  or  eighteenth  century  man,  are  readily  as- 
similated by  the  ordinary  student  of  our  high  schools. 
Through  all  the  past  years  there  has  been  a  slow 
but  steady  growth  of  nerve  and  body  tissues.  In 
addition  cerebral  cells  have  become  used  to  receiv- 
ing added  and  new  impressions,  the  associational 
centres  have  had  a  great  amount  of  exercise,  the 
capacity  for  work,  for  assimilation,  has   been  largely 


224       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

increased.  In  the  face  of  these  facts  the  fear,  which 
one  frequently  hears  expressed  about  the  sum  of 
human  knowledge  and  experience  being  so  enormous 
that  we  are  close  on  to  the  limit  of  acquisition,  is 
plainly  futile.  It  is  true  that  the  world's  circum- 
stances have  greatly  enlarged,  but  the  growth  has  on 
the  whole  been  so  gradual,  has  had  so  many  prepara- 
tory stages  ranging  over  a  great  length  of  time  and, 
besides,  has  followed  so  inevitable  a  path,  that  the 
idea  of  overstrain  is  quite  out  of  the  question.  The 
one  thin^  which  is  necessary  is  an  improvement  in 
methods  which  shall  keep  pace  with  the  varying  cir- 
cumstances of  subjective  and  objective  existence. 
Such  improvements  the  world  is  constantly  trying  to 
bring  about,  and  when  they  are  accomplished  they 
pass  under  the  name  of  progress. 

The  type  of  person  who  has  derived  most  benefit  from 
this  growth  is  the  one  of  an  even  general  development, 
who  has  no  particular  gift  in  any  direction.  Both  hered- 
ity and  environment  have  dealt  genially  with  him,  so 
that  every  part  of  him  has  a  proportionally  even  develop- 
ment. Such  a  person  is  as  a  rule  very  rare.  What  one 
generally  sees  is  a  moderate  general  development  with 
an  atrophy  and  hypertrophy  in  some  particular  direc- 
tions. On  exactly  the  same  plan  does  one  find  physi- 
cal endowments  distributed.  The  ordinary  man  is 
not  evenly  developed  in  all  his  parts.  In  one  case 
there  is   a  disproportionate   strength    and   growth    of 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  22$ 

the  arms,  in  another  the  parts  of  the  back  are  too 
small,  still  another  has  the  hypertrophied  thigh  mus- 
cles that  a  naturally  fine  bicyclist  might  have.  Or, 
a  man  may  have  an  unusual  corrosive  gastric  secre- 
tion and  thus  be  especially  able  to  digest  food ;  his 
neighbor  may  have  an  exceedingly  well  developed 
tactile  apparatus,  so  that  his  sense  of  touch  is  more 
than  ordinarily  keen.  Such  cases  one  meets  every 
day;  they  excite  no  surprise,  simply  because  they  are 
common.  We  likewise  know  from  experience  that 
with  proper  training  all  these  peculiarities  and  an 
indefinite  number  of  others  like  them  may  be  arti- 
ficially reproduced.  By  such  methods  one  may  bring 
about  changes  in  an  ordinary  person's  body  which 
would  stamp  him,  if  they  occurred  spontaneously,  as 
quite  remarkable. 

In  such  cases  of  cultivation,  one  knows  the  cause 
of  the  uncommon  development,  one  explains  the  phe- 
nomena on  fairly  well  understood  biological  laws, 
stating  that  an  unusually  active  metabolism  has  made 
unusual  nutritional  changes  necessary,  that  the  tissue 
involved  has,  as  the  result  of  these  changes,  thrived 
and  grown  beyond  what  would  ordinarily  have  been 
its  limit,  that  the  particular  cells  in  question  have 
received  so  much  nourishment  that  their  function  has 
broadened  proportionally.  This  principle  of  devel- 
opment has  the  widest  influence  on  the  body,  which 
often   enough   produces   results  that  affect  the  mind. 

Q 


226  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Thus  a  condition  which  temporarily  or  permanently 
so  controls  the  blood  supply  to  a  part  that  the  bal- 
ance of  its  metabolism  is  disturbed  would  necessarily 
dispose  the  organ  in  question  to  heightened  or  lowered 
function,  according  to  the  direction  of  disturbance. 
As  an  example,  one  might  quote  the  group  of  cases 
of  Whitwell,  in  which  "mental  and  nervous  lethargy 
and  torpor,"  and  "no  sign  of  originating  mental 
power,"  were  leading  features.  He  goes  on  to  dem- 
onstrate that  the  condition  is  due  to  a  "deficient 
development  of  the  vascular  system."  He  believes 
that  the  imperfect  growth  rests  upon  too  small  a 
heart,  aorta,  or  basal  cerebral  vessels,  so  that  the  cere- 
bral tissues  are  more  or  less  starved.  Where  the 
condition  is  a  permanent  one,  the  mental  state  is 
continously  dull.  Where  it  is  spasmodic,  there  would 
be  varying  phases  of  mental  dulness  and  lucidity. 
He  traces  a  direct  connection  between  the  virility 
of  the  mental  powers  and  the  nourishing  circulation 
which  in  part  helps  to  make  an  active  nutrition 
possible. 

Where  an  analogous  process  of  hypertrophy  takes 
place  in  a  part  or  a  number  of  parts,  a  condition  of 
overgrowth  results  which  may  go  so  far  as  to  disturb 
every  law  of  conservation  of  energy.  Such  a  state 
^  one  calls  elephantiasis.  The  exact  causes  of  it  we 
do  not  know,  but  of  its  general  disposition  there  is 
sufficient  knowledsre  to  allow  a  man  of  Ranke's  care- 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  22/ 

fulness  to  attribute  it  to  "perturbations  of  develop- 
ment during  foetal  life."  While  this  statement  has 
the  inexactness  of  generalization,  nevertheless  it  shows 
in  what  direction  modern  thought  is  tending.  It 
shows  us  that  the  scientific  world  has  advanced  to 
the  stage  where  it  recognizes  that  there  is  much  in 
every  human  being  which,  from  the  time  of  concep- 
tion, is  susceptible  of  modification.  So  long  as  this 
is  so,  the  main  problem  which  presents  itself  lies  in 
the  way  of  using  the  possibilities  of  nutrition  so  as 
to  obtain  the  best  all-around  growth. 

Where,  as  in  the  instance  quoted  above,  there  is 
a  one-sided  development,  the  full  potentialities  of  the 
individual  are  not  conserved.  It  is  plain  enough  that 
a  man,  every  part  of  whose  body  is  well  developed, 
is  a  better  result  of  training  than  one  whose  arras 
are  comparatively  over-developed,  and  whose  legs  are 
comparatively  under-developed.  A  man  whose  senses 
are  fairly  keen  in  all  directions  is  of  more  use  to  him- 
self and  the  community  than  one  who  possesses  ab- 
normally keen  sight  and  abnormally  dull  taste  or 
touch  or  hearing.  The  harmonious  relations  of  parts 
are  not  broken  with  impunity.  The  penalty  is  an 
ever-increasing  unevenness,  which  is  bound  to  limit 
the  man's  usefulness  to  the  narrowest  possible  limits, 
to  make  him  more  nearly  like  a  machine.  Or  the 
process  may  end  in  producing  curiosities,  "freaks," 
beings  whose  simple  ability  does  not  atone  for  many- 


228  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

sided  uselessness.  It  is  bad  enough  when  this  lame- 
ness is  confined  to  physical  gifts,  especially  those  of 
a  low  order.  The  higher  one  ascends  in  the  scale  of 
efficiency,  the  more  deplorable  are  the  reeults. 

No  matter  how  undesirable  these  effects  may  be 
in  the  man,  they  are  infinitely  worse  in  the  child, 
whose  growth  is  in  a  plastic  state  of  change,  who 
needs  all  possible  nourishment  for  every  part  of  the 
economy,  who,  in  the  presence  of  a  drif ting-off  of 
such  nourishment  from  any  part,  would  suffer  not 
merely  from  a  partial  vitality,  but  rather  an  oblitera- 
tion of  the  functions  involved,  A  condition  like  this 
is  unfortunate  enough  when  occurring  in  the  purely 
physical  powers,  but  when  it  appears  in  the  higher 
gifts  of  the  intellect,  the  emotions,  and  the  character, 
the  person  should  receive  much  more  sympathy,  or 
even  commiseration.  He  might  rightfully  regard  him- 
self as  the  victim  of  hard  circumstances,  which  have 
placed  him  in  a  position  somewhat  like  that  of  a  cripple. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  close  analogy  underlying  both 
physical  and  mental  gifts.  The  same  classification  fits 
equally  well  to  both,  the  same  nutritional  laws  act  as 
surely  in  the  case  of  one  as  in  that  of  the  other.  The 
same  laws  of  cell-growth,  cell-hypertrophy  and  cell- 
atrophy  are  common.  One  naturally  makes  the  same 
distinctions  between  feeble  mental  power  as  a  whole, 
uneven  mental  power,  and  strong  general  development. 
The  first  class  one  calls  the  feeble-minded  or  defective, 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  229 

the  second  is  what  one  meets  in  the  ordinary  man  and 
woman,  and  the  third  constitutes  the  highly  gifted. 
Between  these  there  are  many  gradations  whose 
nomenclature   varies   with   individual   views. 

One  of  the  commonest  phenomena  is  to  find  a  person 
who  congenitally  or  artificially  has  a  leaning  in  one 
direction,  which  he  develops  as  far  as  he  can.  Such  a 
person  is  called  "talented,"  or,  in  cases  of  marked 
development,  he  is  named  a  "genius."  At  the  same 
time,  there  is  the  greatest  confusion  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  this  word  "genius."  Some  people  take  it  to 
mean  unusual  intellectual  brightness  in  general,  some 
thus  designate  an  unusual  relation  of  associational 
ideas,  some  call  by  this  name  an  hypertrophied  function 
in  any  branch  of  intellectual  effort.  But  in  the  last 
analysis  most  people  apply  the  term  to  a  man  who  has 
achieved  great  distinction  in  any  of  the  arts,  mostly 
those  of  literature,  painting,  sculpture  and  music.  As 
a  rule,  there  is  so  little  of  common  agreement  on  the 
subject  that  he  who  is  a  genius  to  one  person  is  not 
such  to  the  next  one.  The  definition  of  the  quality  of 
g;enius  is  as  multiform  as  the  number  of  definers  in- 
creases.  One  person  calls  it  "the  power  of  continuity," 
another  "the  faculty  of  application,"  another  "the  pos- 
sibility of  original  composition,"  another  "  the  power  of 
leading  one's  time  in  any  department  of  intellectual 
effort."  Some  persons  wish  to  extend  the  appella- 
tion, speaking  of  a  "  moral  genius  "  or  a  "  philanthropic 


230  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

genius"  or  a  "political  genius."  I  have  even  seen  the 
phrase  "  pugilistic  genius."  And  doubtless  this  last 
holds  as  good  a  title  to  soundness  of  doctrine  as  many 
of  the  others.  The  main  idea  seems  to  be  to  include 
in  this  class  any  man  who  shows  a  marked  gift  in  any 
direction.  Under  this  rule  the  idiot,  Blind  Tom,  must 
likewise  be  termed  a  genius ;  a  "  mind-reader  "  like  the 
late  Washington  Bishop  is  surely  entitled  to  be  called  a 
genius ;  a  convict  who,  by  infinite  patience  and  an  un- 
limited supply  of  time,  makes  a  toy  log  house  out  of 
thousands  of  minute  pieces  of  wood  is  also  a  genius ;  a 
man  with  a  deep  knowledge  of  human  weaknesses  and 
necessities,  who,  by  trickery,  bribery  and  corruption, 
plays  one  faction  against  another,  until  he  holds  the 
political  course  of  a  municipality  in  the  hollow  palm 
of  his  hand,  is  likewise  a  genius.  Anybody  and  every- 
body, from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  who  makes  an 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  men,  is  just  as  clearly 
entitled,  according  to  the  diverse  and  conflicting  opin- 
ions generally  held,  to  this  glorious  name  as  the  great- 
est soul  that  ever  shed  a  freshening  ray  of  light  into 
the  hearts  and  souls  of  us  common  mortals. 

The  true  genius  is  the  grand,  the  awe-inspiring,  the 
soul-compelling  figure  in  human  ideals.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  stand  and  should  stand  on  a  lofty  eminence, 
bathed  in  clouds,  giving  out  a  gorgeous  radiance  that 
clears  the  tangled  paths  of  petty  mankind  who  thus 
may  run  their  course  to  the  peaceful   resting-place  of 


THE  GENIUS  AND   THE   DEFECTIVE  23 1 

a  quiet  and  forgotten  grave.  The  god-like  impulse  in 
him  should  carry  his  thoughts  and  acts  beyond  the 
reach  of  frail  temptation  into  the  serene  land  of  noble 
creative  accomplishment.  His  life  should  be  the  sum- 
mation of  men's  hopes,  their  longings,  their  aspirations. 
The  consistent  course  of  such  a  being's  career  should 
be  the  beacon  light  to  which  future  generations 
might  fix  their  eyes,  as  the  helmsman  in  a  wide  sea 
turns  his  gaze  towards  the  Northern  Star.  Not  a  spot 
should  sully  the  pure  lustre  of  his  reputation,  not  a 
blemish  should  disfigure  the  entirety  of  his  praise. 
As  a  consistent  whole,  his  life  and  works  should 
stand  in  priceless  grandeur,  so  that  no  man  could 
raise  against  them  a  carping  tone.  But,  alas !  one 
does  not  see  such  careers.  On  the  contrary,  one  sees 
lives  that  are  pieced  and  patched,  lives  that  may  have 
a  strong  melody  running  through  them,  but  marred 
and  cheapened  by  discords  and  over-tones.  For  each 
great  gift  one  finds  a  corresponding  weakness,  near 
each  line  of  brightness  one  sees  a  spot  of  black.  The 
idol's  head  may  be  of  gold,  but  his  body  and  feet  are 
apt  to  be  made  of  baser  metals  and  clay. 

The  more  closely  one  thinks  about  the  matter,  the 
more  clearly  one  sees  that  what  we  mean  by  the 
genius  is  an  ideal,  pure  and  simple.  Short  of  this 
one  can  find  no  line  which  will  accurately  mark  off 
the  so-called  genius  from  the  talented  man,  any  more 
than  one  can  differentiate  the  talented  from  the  ordi- 


232       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

nary  man.  What  one  does  find  is  a  varying  develop- 
ment in  this  direction  or  in  that,  a  greater  vitality  in 
one  line  or  another ;  in  other  words,  a  greater  produc- 
tion of  energy  in  some  group  or  groups  of  cells,  which 
have  had  the  advantage  of  a  proportionately  great 
nourishment.  The  world  would  understand  the  matter 
much  better,  would  be  able  better  to  appreciate  the 
lesson  of  superlative  accomplishment,  if  it  would  speak 
of  a  great  man  as  a  gifted  man,  rather  than  a  genius. 
It  would  understand  that  great  gifts  do  not  come 
arbitrarily  and  without  reason ;  it  knows  from  common 
experience  that  the  more  favorable  the  training  and 
environment  of  any  part  of  the  body  are,  the  better 
will  its  functions  be.  Further,  it  would  know  that 
naturally  great  gifts,  like  smaller  ones,  may  be  devel- 
oped and  improved.  The  way  to  an  indefinitely  ex- 
tended betterment  would  thus  become  plainer,  and 
the  efforts  to  secure  this  betterment  would  then 
surely,  even  if  slowly,  follow. 

The  lesson  of  greatness  is  not  complete  unless  it 
is  studied  along  with  its  accompanying  weaknesses. 
A  great  man  is  unjustly  dealt  with  when  only  one 
part  of  him  is  known.  And  unquestionably,  the  com- 
munity is  most  fairly  treated  by  receiving  the  most 
faithful  impressions.  An  estimate  of  Caesar,  which 
shows  nothing  but  his  remarkable  administrative  capa- 
city, removes  him  so  far  from  ordinary  methods  of 
judgment  that  what  one  sees  is  not   the  presentment 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  233 

of  the  man,  but  rather  a  projection  of  one  phase  of 
him.  A  much  more  realistic  and  helpful  view  would 
include  the  weaknesses  that  were  sufficient  to  keep 
him  far  from  the  pedestal  of  the  demi-god.  The 
bloody  Napoleon,  great  in  the  conquest  of  armies,  in 
the  making  of  countless  widows  and  orphans,  in  dis- 
membering states,  has  his  limitations  so  strongly 
marked,  that  if  time  could  wipe  out  the  trail  of  de- 
structive ambition  which  he  left  behind  him,  the  best 
part  of  his  deeds  would  be  destroyed.  The  hyper- 
trophy of  a  single  faculty  was  strongly  marked  in 
him.  Among  men  of  military  fame  Washington,  in 
the  full  and  rounded  development  of  the  whole  range 
of  man,  was  infinitely  his  superior,  infinitely  more 
worthy  of  admiration.  Of  the  two,  the  former  played 
the  part  of  ruthless  and  selfish  destroyer ;  he  is  one 
of  the  great  personages  of  the  world  who  is  least 
deserving  of  respect  for  his  characteristic  ability. 
Among  other  deficiencies,  his  lack  of  moral  sense  — 
a  constituent  element  in  the  cerebral  equation  —  was 
starved,  was  shriveled.  The  American,  on  the  other 
hand,  approached  much  nearer  to  the  ideal  of  develop- 
ment in  every  part.  While  not  by  any  means  perfect, 
nevertheless  his  great  gifts  showed  so  large  and  boun- 
tiful a  range,  that  the  world  may  point  to  him  with 
highest  pride  as  an  earnest  of  what  manhood  may 
possibly  come  to  be. 

Take  a  man  of  quite  different  parts  for  an  example 


234  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

—  Wagner.  The  range  of  his  gifts  was  wide  enough 
to  embrace  the  domains  of  music,  literature  and  stage 
management,  which  is  indeed  a  wide  field.  In  these 
arts  his  hand  was  that  of  a  master,  and  all  the  world 
is  now  swinging  censers  before  his  shrine.  While 
appreciating  his  gifts,  one  ought  likewise  to  recognize 
how  unworthy  of  admiration  he  was  in  many  other 
respects ;  one  ought  clearly  to  see  that  he  embodied 
a  one-sided  growth,  a  partial  nutrition.  Doubtless  one 
might,  with  truth,  say  that  the  one-sidedness  of  this 
nutrition  showed  itself  in  the  eccentricities  and  want 
of  sanity  which  unquestionably  characterized  part  of 
his  work.  The  pathological  intensity  of  "  Tristan  and 
Isolde,"  and  the  esoteric  mysticism  in  "Die  Gotter- 
dammerung,"  are  far  from  being  the  product  of  a 
normal  and  admirable  cerebral  balance.  Placed  next 
to  the  joyous  healthfulness  of  *'  Die  Meistersinger," 
they  must  forever  represent  high  intellectual  action, 
plus  unusual  cortical  irritation  such  as  one  would  not 
expect  to  find  in  the  healthy  and  even  results  of  a 
desirable  nutrition. 

The  more  closely  one  examines  the  great  men  of  the 
world,  the  more  is  one  convinced  of  the  satisfactory 
nature  of  the  classification  here  advocated.  At  the 
same  time,  there  is  not  the  least  desire  to  subtract  one 
jot  or  tittle  from  their  fame  and  its  reward.  On  the 
contrary,  there  is  the  greatest  reason,  because  these 
gifted  men  were  not  the  perfectly  developed  creatures 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  235 

that  unwise  partisans  construe  them  to  be,  to  laud  their 
great  deeds  that  were  done  in  spite  of  collateral  imper- 
fections. The  fact  remains  the  same,  that  the  true 
genius,  the  man  of  noble  and  complete  development, 
has  never,  so  far  as  is  known,  existed.  Doubtless  the 
one  who  comes  nearest  the  mark  is  Goethe.  In  him 
there  occurred  a  wonderful  combination  of  the  artistic 
and  scientific  faculties,  the  like  of  which  has  never 
existed  in  any  other  man.  His  breadth  of  range  was 
wonderful,  the  catholicity  of  his  sympathies,  the  scope 
of  his  imagination,  immense.  His  personality  was 
deeply  impressive,  his  cultural  influence  was  very  great. 
But  even  he  was  not  evenly  rounded.  Even  he  suf- 
fered from  a  partial  development  which  showed  an  im- 
perfect functional  activity  in  at  least  one  direction. 
His  moral  acts  were  distinctly  within  the  range  of 
adverse  criticism,  and  for  them  there  can  be  no  other 
just  opinion  than  a  lack  of  proper  development.  The) 
world  must  surely  come  to  recognize  that  a  perfect ' 
exercise  of  every  part  of  psychical  action  is  the  most  j 
desirable  thing  within  the  bounds  of  human  endeavor.  I 
This  would  constitute  the  nearest  approach  to  the  per- 
fect man  of  which  we  are  able  to  conceive.  On  this 
principle,  moral  development  is  fully  as  important  as 
that  which  includes  proficiency  in  literature,  scientific, 
or  artistic  departments.  No  matter  how  far  one  may 
consider  ethics  to  be  composed  of  emotional  or  intel- 
lectual elements,  the  same  general  rule  would  govern 


236  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

it.  So  long  as  one  knows  that  cerebral  molecular 
action  is  the  origin  of  the  energy  which  elaborates 
thought  and  nervous  impulse,  one  must  surely  conclude 
that  the  ideal  development,  the  development  which 
represents  the  highest  point  of  efficiency  for  the  in- 
dividual, as  well  as  the  community,  is  the  one  that  will 
invigorate  every  nerve  cell  in  all  its  ramification.  Not 
only  is  this  the  goal  for  which  the  world  must  strive, 
but  also  it  is  the  standard  by  which  every  human  being 
should  be  measured.  The  contemplation  of  the  ideal 
is  the  one  method  by  which  the  acts  and  action  of 
human  beings  are  improved.  Nothing  less  can  be 
enough  of  an  incentive  nor  hold  enough  of  rigid  exact- 
ness by  which  the  growth  of  succeeding  times  may  be 
guided. 

This  rule,  when  applied  to  the  precocious  child, — 
the  child-genius,  — is  of  overweening  importance.  Such 
a  child  necessarily  attracts  great  attention,  receives 
unmeasured  praise  even  for  faulty  performance.  His 
unusual  faculty  is  unusual  from  the  standpoint  of  child- 
hood, a  time  which  one  associates  with  so  incomplete 
a  development  that  its  work  one  expects  to  be  petty, 
disconnected,  without  the  concentration  and  finish  that 
mature  strength  of  tissue  alone  can  confer.  By  respect- 
ing the  unstable  weakness  of  immaturity,  we  know  that 
the  person  thereby  receives  opportunity  to  feed  the 
delicate  nerve  substance,  to  build  up  a  machine  that 
will  count  efficient  deeds  as  the  normal  expression  of 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  237 

its  function  rather  than  a  drain  upon  its  very  substance. 
The  difference  between  exacting  a  certain  high  standard 
in  work  from  an  adult,  and  attempts  to  extort  the  same 
efforts  from  a  child,  is  the  difference  between  drawing 
from  a  capital  sum  or  the  interest  which  that  sum  nor- 
mally yields.  In  the  one  case  the  original  faculty  is 
undisturbed,  in  the  other  it  is  decreased  or  obliterated. 
However,  this  is  not  the  only  or  the  worst  result ;  for 
the  work  of  precocious  children  is  not  as  a  rule  of  very 
much  benefit  outside  of  the  gratification  of  curiosity. 
Beyond  this  one  fact,  there  is  hardly  any  reason  for 
allowing  such  children  to  show  their  abilities.  More- 
over, there  is  hardly  a  single  branch  of  human  industry 
that  they  have  in  any  way  improved. 

In  addition,  and  as  something  much  more  serious, 
is  the  unevenness,  the  one-sided  growth  of  mind  and 
character  that  must  of  necessity  come  about.  Where 
a  normal  supply  of  energy  is  being  drafted  into  the 
service  of  a  certain  comparatively  small  area  of  cere- 
bral tissue,  the  remaining  portions  must  necessarily 
receive  a  smaller  amount  of  nourishment.  The  per- 
son's whole  habit  of  mind  undergoes  a  change.  His 
mental  processes  work  within  a  small  circle,  and  prog- 
ress beyond  that  circle  may  be  gained  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty.  He  realizes  facts  and  thoughts 
very  much  as  a  child  sees  various  colors  through  a 
tinted  glass ;  the  real  colors  are  thereby  changed  so 
far  from  their  true  shade  as  not  to   be   recognizable. 


238       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

In  physics  one  knows  that  a  luminous  ray  in  passing 
from  one  body  to  another  undergoes  a  bending,  a 
reflection.  The  angle  at  which  one  is  unable  to  per- 
ceive the  ray  is  called  the  critical  angle.  This  angle 
of  total  reflection  varies  with  different  substances, 
being  in  some  exceedingly  small.  In  similar  ways 
one  may  fitly  say  that  in  the  mind  of  the  man  who 
in  childhood  was  precocious,  there  is  apt  to  be  an 
angle  of  total  reflection  that  is  unusually  narrow. 
He  has  suffered  a  series  of  changes  which  makes  a 
broad  development  and  a  consequently  broad  life  out 
of  the  question.  By  the  very  act  of  precocious  con- 
sumption of  nerve  energy,  normal  metabolism  must 
give  way  to  unusual  tissue  changes,  with  abnormal 
symptoms  in  mind  and  character. 

In  these  times,  one  hears  much  talk  about  mental 
and  moral  degeneracy.  The  term  is  loosely  used, 
and  is  meant  to  designate  all  sorts  of  people  who  show 
unfavorable  psychical  characteristics,  especially  in  the 
ways  of  moral  weakness,  intellectual  superficiality,  lack 
of  concentrated  effort,  a  craving  for  the  outlandish, 
the  bizarre,  even  the  shocking,  elements  in  life.  In- 
ordinate conceit  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  its  symp- 
toms, especially  where  there  is  no  good  ground  for 
unusual  self-praise.  Recalcitration  to  discipline,  re- 
pugnance to  the  settled  and  rigid  conditions  of  life, 
are  commonly  encountered.  Irreverence  for  rightful 
authority  and  the  creation  of  new  gods  are   supposed 


THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  DEFECTIVE  239 

to  be  commonly  seen.  In  other  words,  a  perturbation 
of  the  nervous  system  exists  which  does  not  permit 
of  a  natural  expression  of  vitality.  The  theory  is  held 
that  the  strain  and  stress  of  modern  life,  with  its 
whirl  and  rush,  its  astounding  upheavals  of  settled 
ideas  which  gigantic  improv'^ements  have  introduced, 
its  irreverence,  its  impatience,  its  thirst  for  luxury, 
have  brought  this  condition  of  things  into  existence. 
Whether  or  not  this  is  the  cause,  whether  or  not 
these  characteristics  flourish  in  greater  abundance 
now  then  formerly,  at  all  events,  traits  like  them  are 
merely  evidences  of  poor  development,  of  poorly  nour- 
ished cerebral  cells,  of  distorted  streams  of  energy 
that  are  following  the  ragged  lines  of  least  resistance. 
This  is  exactly  the  result  that  one  would  expect  from 
cerebral  precocity ;  it  is  the  outcome  of  disturbed  rela- 
tions which  can  be  known  only  by  the  disturbance  in 
their  classic  functions.  Degeneracy  is  not  a  disease,  1 
it  is  merely  a  symptom,  the  cause  of  which  is  a  defi- 
ance of  ordinary  laws  which  dominate  the  lowest  as  ) 
well  as  the  highest  of  men.  It  may  be  exterminated, 
but  only  by  a  plan  of  life  which  looks  out  for  primal  x 
conditions  rather  than  remedial  measures.  As  soon  as 
the  child's  main  business  in  life  is  seen  to  consist  in 
proper  eating  and  proper  assimilation  of  food,  in  proper 
sleep,  in  proper  recreation  and  exercise,  in  proper  in- 
struction, in  the  right  and  healthy  exercise  of  his  emo- 
tions, as  well  as  his  intellect  and  body,  the  symptom 


240  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

must  disappear.  The  child  should  no  more  be  allowed 
to  assume  great  burdens  involving  mental  strain  and 
excitement  than  he  should  be  permitted  to  play  with 
dynamite.  The  difference  in  the  ultimate  outcome  is 
partly  one  of  time.  But  one  main  fact  holds  good  : 
great  deeds  require  corresponding  exertion.  Where 
the  economy,  by  its  maturity  and  nice  development, 
has  acquired  full  power,  such  exertion  is  merely  nor- 
mal and  healthful  exercise.  When  it  is  immature, 
unstable,  unripe,  such  efforts  exhaust  its  vitality,  dis- 
tort its  regular  outlines,  undermine  its  creative  possi- 
bilities. The  problem  is  not  a  hard  one ;  it  requires 
nothing  more  than  plain  and  clear  and  sane  thought. 


CHAPTER   X 

Institutional  Life  in  the  Development  of  the 
Child 

The  care  of  children  in  institutions  —  what  one 
might  call  the  substitute  care  of  children  —  comes 
next  in  importance  to  the  care  of  them  at  home.  In 
fact,  it  is  only  by  comparing  it  to  home  training  that 
one  can  judge  of  the  worth  of  the  discipline  which  an 
institution  gives.  Moreover,  the  ideal  that  should  con- 
stantly be  kept  in  mind  is  that  of  furnishing  methods 
which  will  most  surely  bring  about  the  results  that 
home  life  of  a  high  order  is  able  to  do.  This  has 
almost  always  seemed  impossible ;  the  general  respect 
for  parental  influence  and  authority  has  been  so  great 
that  no  adequate  substitute  for  it  has  been  considered 
possible.  "Any  home  is  better  than  a  Home"  has 
been  the  cry ;  and  even  in  cases  of  marked  deficiency 
of  favorable  environment,  the  opinion  is  stoutly  advo- 
cated that  the  interests  of  the  State  and  the  individ- 
uals concerned  are  best  preserved  by  keeping,  no 
matter  what  the  circumstances,  the  family  circle  intact. 
Formerly  this  was  held  in  so  extreme  a  degree  that 
&  241 


242  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

failure  on  the  part  of  parents  to  provide  properly  for 
their  children's  physical  and  moral  growth  was  not 
considered  sufficient  reason  for  breaking  family  ties. 
Flagrant  instances  of  neglect,  of  cruelty,  of  viciousness, 
were  regarded  with  complacency.  The  child  was  the 
father's  chattel,  existing  under  absolute  rights  of  pos- 
session. And  in  recent  times  when  the  movement  to 
establish  children's  aid  societies  began  to  assume  a 
definite  form,  much  difficulty  was  experienced  in  over- 
coming the  feeling  that  the  rights  of  parents  were 
paramount.  Therefore,  where  investigation  revealed 
full  evidence  of  immorality  or  almost  fatal  abuse,  the 
cry  still  went  up  that  "  any  home  is  better  than  a 
Home!" 

Now,  however,  things  have  changed  somewhat. 
People  recognize  that  the  family  is  of  the  highest  use 
to  the  State  when  children  are  so  reared  that  their 
mental  and  physical  faculties  receive  sufficient  oppor- 
tunity to  expand  in  a  fairly  decent  fashion.  They  have 
come  to  see  that  parental  authority  is  not  necessarily 
wisely  administered,  but  on  the  contrary  may  give 
unlimited  opportunity  for  wrong-doing,  that  parental 
example  may,  instead  of  leading  children  in  the  ways 
of  peace  and  health,  drag  them  down  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  misery  and  viciousness.  Under  such  circum- 
stances the  "  home  "  becomes  a  plague-spot.  Even  un- 
der milder  circumstances,  but  where  rugged  virtues  do 
not  flourish,  the  home  may  be  so  far  from  providing  a 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  243 

normal  nutrition  for  body  and  mind  that  its  value  is 
doubtful.  The  need  for  a  substitute  then  becomes  im- 
perative, and  the  whole  question  resolves  itself  into  an 
inquiry  about  the  best  methods  of  accomplishing  the 
desired  ends. 

In  looking  over  the  matter,  the  observer  notices  a 
curious  fact:  that  the  oldest  and  most  civilized  com- 
munities are  not  necessarily  the  ones  that  have  made 
most  progress.  Rather,  they  are  the  most  conserva- 
tive, where  the  belief  in  old-time  rights  is  most  firmly 
held,  or  where  the  feeling  for  non-interference  is 
strongest.  In  such  communities  one  is  most  apt  to 
find  great  institutions  for  the  care  of  orphaned  and 
abused  children,  which  are  architecturally  fine,  richly 
endowed,  which  are  sedulously  visited  by  the  chari- 
tably inclined.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  these  advan- 
tages, their  wards  commonly  do  not  turn  out  well ;  as 
a  rule,  they  do  not  grow  into  men  and  women  of  the 
highest  type.  In  fact,  this  is  what  people  expect,  and 
all  manner  of  consideration  for  shortcomings  in  a  per- 
son is  made  who  has  had  the  misfortune  to  grow  up  as 
an  asylum  child.  The  cry  again  is  heard:  "Any  home 
is  better  than  a  Home ! " 

In  dealing  with  institutions  of  this  kind,  one  comes 
across  certain  phenomena  which  occur  regularly  in 
almost  all  cases.  One  finds  large  masses  of  children 
marked  off  from  the  rest  of  the  community,  commonly 
wearing    a    special    uniform   which    emphasizes  their 


244  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

segregation,  controlled  in  the  large  majority  of  in- 
stances by  a  man  or  woman  whose  main  excellence 
is  a  faculty  of  administrative  discipline,  which  brings 
about  an  appearance  of  outward  neatness  and  a  show 
of  meek  submission  on  the  part  of  the  charges  of  the 
institution  to  the  visiting  board ;  one  finds  a  hard  and 
fast  routine  which  being  designed  for  the  management 
of  all  is  generally  fitted  for  no  one  individual ;  one  finds 
that  often  useless  and  trivial  occupations  are  taught, 
which  tend  to  increase  the  institutional  revenues  and 
make  a  brave  show  of  employing  a  large  number  of 
"hands";  one  finds  that  the  children  are  brought  up 
in  huge  buildings  where  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  are 
arranged  on  a  wholesale  plan,  where  the  actual  condi- 
tions of  everyday  existence  are  unknown,  where  the 
true  value  of  individual  independence,  of  money,  of 
personal  self-respect,  of  personal  affection,  are  barely 
suggested.  And  where  the  State  pays  a  per  capita 
share  of  the  expenses,  one  finds  a  disposition  to  get 
as  many  children  into  one  institution  as  is  possible  ; 
for  in  reckoning  the  support  of  large  numbers,  the 
individual  cost  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  number  sup- 
ported. As  a  result  of  all  this,  the  ends  to  be  expected 
in  an  advantageous  development  are  not  by  any  means 
kept  in  sight. 

One  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  care  of  these  chil- 
dren involves  a  different  method  of  treatment  than  that 
of  the  ordinary  child  in  the  ordinary  home.     Many  of 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  245 

them  having  come  from  an  impoverished  stock  have  a 
predisposition  to  weakness  in  mind  and  body,  still  more 
have  lived  their  short  lives  in  surroundings  character- 
ized by  want  or  ignorance  or  stupidity  or  viciousness. 
Many  of  them  bear  the  hall-mark  of  their  most  unfortu- 
nate environment.  They  are  correspondingly  ready  to 
fall  into  developmental  distortions  and  are  correspond- 
ingly hard  to  be  kept  within  the  lines  of  a  straight 
growth.  Far  more  than  the  ordinary  child  should  they 
be  watched  and  nurtured,  —  not  only  for  their  own 
sakes,  but  also  for  that  of  the  community  of  which 
they  form  an  important  part.  When  one  comes  to 
think  that  in  the  State  of  New  York,  one  out  of  every 
two  hundred  and  fifty-one  of  the  population  is  sup- 
ported from  the  public  funds,  the  necessity  immedi- 
ately becomes  apparent  of  properly  caring  for  these 
wards  of  the  State,  to  the  end  of  converting  them  from 
incumbrances  into  useful,  valuable  citizens.  The  mere 
fact  that  they  have  no  natural  guardians  makes  the 
necessity  of  caring  for  them  lie  all  the  more  heavily 
on  the  community  which  is  ultimately  affected  by  their 
successful  or  unsuccessful  development. 

Keeping  these  things  in  mind,  one  can  say  very  little 
for  the  methods  now  used  in  this  State.  Although  we 
know  that  children  follow  their  enveloping  influences 
very  closely,  and  that  therefore  their  daily  companions 
are  important  factors  in  determining  what  they  are  to 
be,  nevertheless,  the  system  in  question  puts  dozens  of 


246  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

children  of  the  same  age  together,  on  much  the  same 
plan  as  similar  kinds  of  merchandise  are  assorted. 
Naturally,  there  are  no  higher  examples  to  be  followed, 
and  children  do  not  progress  so  rapidly  as  under  better 
auspices  they  would.  Even  in  infancy  one  can  plainly 
notice  this  fact.  These  little  creatures  look,  act,  and 
really  are  far  otherwise  than  the  ordinary  baby  in  good 
surroundings.  Their  want  of  mental  as  well  as  physi- 
cal activity  is  so  plainly  apparent  as  to  be  visible  even 
to  non-professional  observers.  From  such  a  source 
comes  the  remark  that  "institution  babies  are  tolerably 
lethargic."  They  are  lethargic  because  their  vitality 
has  been  sapped  away,  and  one  might  with  equal  truth 
say  that  institution  babies  are  tolerably  withered. 
Even  more  striking  is  a  fact  that  can  be  vouched  for 
by  any  physician  who  has  had  much  experience  in  hos- 
pital wards  for  babies.  Such  patients  languish  in  insti- 
tutions although  their  food  and  care  are  fairly  good. 
In  fact,  the  same  food  and  care,  if  provided  with  the 
surroundings  of  a  home,  will  often  bring  the  little  one 
to  blooming  health  and  vigor.  The  reason  is  not  hard 
to  find  out.  The  gist  of  the  matter  is,  that  the  care  of 
a  baby  is  not  meant  to  be  arranged  on  a  wholesale 
plan.  He  needs  personal  attention,  and  without  it 
his  body  withers.  An  even  greater  effect  has  a  too 
strongly  marked  routine  upon  his  mind.  The  routine 
means  machine-like  repetition,  day  after  day  and  week 
after  week,   of  the   same   or   similar   acts.     It  is  the 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  247 

opposite  of  the  change,  the  varying  activity  and  the 
spontaneity  of  individual  training.  An  adult  whose 
growth  is  finished,  whose  organism  is  at  rest,  might 
possibly  exist  without  much  injury  in  a  condition  of 
stagnation.  His  needs  lie  mainly  in  the  way  of  repair 
of  used-up  tissue.  But  with  the  growing  infant  or 
child,  the  demands  are  far  greater.  They  look  for  the 
elaboration  of  entirely  new  material  upon  which  func- 
tional development  rests.  And  where  such  healthful 
exercise  is  deficient,  the  expected  development  cannot 
appear.  Naturally,  then,  one  finds  that  children  massed 
in  large  institutions  are  backward,  are  prone  to  stu-/ 
pidity,  are  lacking  in  a  healthy  mental  curiosity.  Their 
spontaneity  is  crushed  by  rules  and  regulations  that! 
are  not  framed  with  a  clear  view  to  their  best  interests.  \ 
In  order  to  subserve  those  interests,  the  person  in 
charge  of  the  institution  should  be  of  remarkable 
strength  of  mind  and  character.  By  slow  degrees 
people  are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  necessity  of 
employing  as  teachers  such  persons  as  have  proved 
themselves  thoroughly  capable.  The  opinion  is  slowly 
—  but  very  slowly  —  gaining  ground,  that  the  real 
teacher  is  not  some  young  woman  in  need  of  pin 
money,  or  a  girl  who  wishes  to  keep  herself  busy  in 
the  time  between  graduation  and  marriage.  The  part 
of  the  public  that  pretends  to  think  is  steadily  coming 
to  feel  that  those  who  have  control  of  numbers  of 
children  for  an  important  part  of  each  working  day, 


248       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

should  be  carefully  selected  for  this  great  responsibility 
by  both  training  and  natural  fitness.  The  more  chari- 
tably minded  may  hold  that  parents  by  the  very  fact 
of  parenthood  come  to  possess  a  special  faculty  for  the 
training  and  care  of  their  offspring.  But  with  the 
teacher,  who  cannot  pretend  to  have  any  reason  for 
such  a  faculty,  quite  a  different  idea  must  be  in  force. 
With  her,  the  matter  is  and  should  be  merely  that  of  a 
business,  a  vocation,  at  the  most,  a  well-loved  vocation. 
Therefore,  she  should  have  every  possible  advantage 
which  may  enable  her  to  prosecute  her  duties  in  the 
best  possible  manner.  If  this  is  true  of  the  ordinary 
teacher,  a  similar  train  of  thought  will  more  impera- 
tively apply  to  the  superintendent  of  an  institution  for 
children.  But  it  is  with  the  greatest  rarity  that  one 
finds  the  position  conferred  on  any  such  principle  of 
choice.  The  ordinary  incumbent  is  a  man  who  has  had 
political  training  and  political  influence,  or  a  superior 
sort  of  workman  who  has  shown  some  manner  of  prac- 
tical ability,  or  a  relative  of  a  person  in  authority  in  the 
management.  Among  some  of  the  superintendents  of 
whom  I  know,  there  are  retired  or  unsuccessful  busi- 
ness men,  a  retired  insurance  agent,  a  carpenter,  a  for- 
mer watchman,  an  assistant  matron  in  a  hospital,  two 
former  teachers  and  two  clergymen.  While  it  is  pos- 
sible that  all  of  these  persons  may  be  active  and  zeal- 
ous to  do  what  is  right,  —  as  far  as  they  can  see  the 
right,  —  nevertheless,  I  seriously  doubt  that  they  have 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  249 

a  respectable  share  of  the  special  training  and  know- 
ledge which  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  realization 
of  the  possibilities  of  their  positions. 

As  far  as  one  can  judge,  their  common  feeling  is  one 
of  full  satisfaction  when  their  institutions  have  no  vio- 
lent outbreaks  of  epidemic  diseases,  when  the  children 
have  a  clean  exterior,  when  they  show  the  effects  of 
wholesome  drilling  so  that  all  of  them  can  make  the 
same  sort  of  obeisance,  can  march  meekly  and  in  regu- 
lar order,  can  answer  certain  lists  of  questions  without 
too  much  confusion.  Most  of  these  superintendents, 
I  believe,  feel  that  the  children  are  very  fortunate  in 
having  so  much  care,  so  many  advantages,  and  that  the 
fact  of  their  being  dependent  upon  charity  should  make 
them  supremely  thankful  for  any  fate  that  is  better 
than  starvation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such  a  system  is 
as  unprofitable  as  one  could  possibly  imagine.  Society 
has  the  keenest  interests  in  the  outcome  of  these  many 
lives,  which  have  the  prospect  of  inefficiency  and  pau- 
perism before  them.  For  each  has  the  same  range  of 
possibilities  as  more  fortunate  children,  each  one  has 
the  same  liability  to  being  crushed.  In  the  hands  of  a 
very  wise  guardian  they  might  have  unlimited  poten- 
tialities for  good,  and  with  a  better  system  these  wards 
of  the  State  might  come  to  be  parts  of  its  strongest 
bulwarks.  The  natural  conclusion  is,  that  the  welfare 
of  so  many  lives  requires  the  highest  skill  for  its  care. 
The  superintendent  of  an  institution  for  children  should 


250  THE  DEVELOPMENT   OF  THE  CHILD 

represent  the  highest  type  of  guardian  that  the  com- 
munity can  afford,  a  person  who  is  able  by  training, 
experience  and  ability  to  have  broad  views,  wise 
policies  and  a  sympathetic  discernment  of  character 
that  will  prevent  his  looking  at  his  charges  as  so 
many  little  animals  that  are  to  be  kept  in  subjection. 
Of  course,  one  might  say  that  no  human  wisdom  is 
great  enough  to  govern  the  development  of  every 
individual  child  in  a  large  institution.  That  may  be 
true ;  but  it  is  not  more  true  than  that  a  superior  man 
can  accomplish  more  than  an  inferior.  It  is  hard  to 
mark  off  the  limits  of  what  the  properly  selected  person 
can  do.  But  besides  this  one  factor,  there  are  other 
considerations  to  be  taken  into  account.  A  child  who 
is  brought  up  in  huge  dormitories  and  dining-rooms,  in 
marble-paved,  steam-heated  halls,  who  sees  the  world 
through  the  bars  of  a  fence,  who  is  inspected  with  the 
same  curiosity  as  the  animals  in  the  Zoo,  who  goes  to 
bed  with  no  more  caressing  sound  than  the  clang  of  a 
retiring  bell,  who  receives  no  more  affection  than  the 
share  that  a  stranger  can  distribute  among  dozens  or 
hundreds,  who  lives  and  moves  as  part  of  a  great 
machine,  has  little  chance  of  developing  in  a  way  that 
will  call  into  life  all  the  range  of  activities  of  which  his 
organization  is  susceptible.  Therefore,  it  has  been 
said,  truly  enough,  that  such  children  are  lethargic, 
show  "  a  want  of  pluck,  dependence  on  others,  inability 
to  shift  for   themselves,  characteristics  which   develop 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  2$  I 

into  the  grown  pauper."  When  such  children  are  old 
enough  to  be  put  out  in  the  world,  their  chances 
of  survival  must  be  pitiably  small;  they  must  be 
thoroughly  unprepared  to  fight  the  battles  that  await 
every  man  and  woman ;  they  may  be  considered  an- 
alogous to  immigrants  from  another  world.  To  expect 
from  them  the  same  grasp  of  affairs,  the  same  self- 
restraint,  the  same  tenacity  of  purpose,  and  the  same 
moderation  in  conduct  that  we  look  for  in  ordinary, 
more  fortunate  citizens,  is  not  quite  logical.  Thus  they 
are  forced  into  a  class  by  themselves ;  although  the 
world  will  not  allow  them  to  transgress  its  rules,  never- 
theless, it  does  not  furnish  a  special  code  that  is  better 
adapted  to  their  peculiar  condition. 

As  things  now  are,  there  is  no  personal  responsibility 
for  the  children  in  large  institutions.  Those  in  control 
are  sedulously  guarding  the  institution  rather  than  the 
individual  children  for  whom  the  institution  exists. 
Most  of  these  institutions  are  controlled  by  private 
persons  who  have  absolute  authority  in  their  manage- 
ment. This  might  be  good  enough,  if  such  persons 
were  generally  in  possession  of  the  most  desirable 
qualifications  for  the  positions.  But,  as  a  rule,  they 
are  men  who  have  been  selected  on  account  of  money 
donations  or  similar  reasons.  The  consequent  result 
is  that  these  kind  and  charitable  persons  feel  most  in- 
terest in  the  business  affairs  of  the  institution  ;  they 
believe  that  these  affairs  are  the  main  objects  of  care ; 


252  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

partly,  perhaps,  because  such  are  the  things  which  they 
best  understand.  In  the  meanwhile,  there  is  no  one  to 
look  after  the  individual  child,  who  is  no  more  thought 
of  than  is  a  single  lamb  in  a  large  flock.  As  yet,  there 
is  hardly  enough  interest  felt  in  this  important  part  of 
the  population  to  call  forth  a  general  and  constant 
inquiry  into  methods  of  management.  Occasionally, 
some  one  utters  a  protest,  such  as  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw 
Lowell  did  in  the  report  of  the  New  York  Board  of 
Charities  for  1890.  There  she  said:  "New  York  City 
supports  an  average  population  of  about  14,000  boys 
and  girls,  at  an  expense  of  $1,500,000  annually,  in 
institutions  controlled  by  private  individuals.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  official  of  New  York  City  who  knows  or 
has  a  right  to  know  whether  these  children  are  trained 
in  idleness  or  industry,  in  virtue  or  vice." 

Even  if  one  rejects  so  harsh  a  possibility  as  being 
trained  in  vice,  one  has  still  a  multitude  of  conditions 
that  may  be  almost  as  bad.  Among  them  one  is 
bound  to  find  deceit,  a  want  of  open  frankness,  a  lack 
of  principle,  a  disposition  to  cringe  and  fawn,  that  are 
destructive  to  a  healthy  mental  tone.  Most  of  all  are 
these  acquired  characteristics  not  distinctive  of  the 
state  of  mind  which  produces  fine  men  and  women. 
From  the  start,  such  children  are  condemned  to  the 
likelihood  of  weak  and  petty  characters,  which  the 
experiences  of  mature  life  are  not  likely  to  strengthen. 

As  far  as  the  question  of  industrial  training  in  large 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  253 

institutions  goes,  very  little  that  is  pleasant  can  be 
said.  In  most  cases,  the  occupations  are  those  involv- 
ing but  little  skill,  they  are  generally  of  a  low  grade, 
and  do  little  to  train  either  mind  or  body.  The  chil- 
dren are  kept  at  a  method  of  employment  that  rarely 
varies,  that  blunts  and  stupefies  nascent  energy  by 
violations  of  almost  all  the  rules  of  healthful  develop- 
ment. Steady  work  in  such  ways  as  picking  hair, 
making  paper  bags  and  the  many  similarly  trivial 
things  which  one  here  finds,  may,  especially  when 
well  paid  for  by  the  charitably  inclined,  add  consid- 
erable amounts  to  the  revenues  of  the  institution. 
But  this  is  gained  at  the  expense  of  brain  and  nerve 
energy  in  the  child.  But  even  where  the  nature  of 
the  work  is  more  profitable,  one  may  still  be  sure  that 
the  children  cannot  gain  thereby.  For  the  essential 
characteristic  of  the  child  body  and  mind  is  the  in- 
ability to  concentrate  attention  or  efforts  excepting  in 
a  small  degree  and  for  a  short  time.  Thus,  no  steady 
employment,  even  where  it  does  not  make  a  slave  of 
the  child,  can  do  anything  but  harm.  To  obtain  a 
proper  diversity  of  employment  is  practically  impos- 
sible in  a  great  asylum,  even  where  the  ruling  powers 
would  be  willing  to  follow  any  plan  that  could  improve 
the  results  of  their  work.  One  should  keep  in  mind 
that  children,  whose  permanent  welfare  is  a  matter  of 
importance,  should  never  be  expected  to  do  work  for 
the  sake  of  an   immediate   money  return.     For  such 


254  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

work  requires  too  much  concentration  of  effort  and 
attention  to  be  undertaken  with  safety.  Even  under 
the  luxurious  surroundings  of  a  modern  asylum,  such 
work  has  a  number  of  features  in  common  with 
"  child-slavery." 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  isolating 
circumstances  of  institutional  life.  Nothing  is  easier 
or  more  certain  in  results  than  to  crush  and  cow  a 
child  by  marking  him  off  with  unfortunate  circum- 
stances from  the  common  life  of  young  children. 
Even  in  so  mild  a  case  as  some  slight  physical  de- 
formity, where  the  child's  attention  is  thrown  in  upon 
himself,  he  straightway  begins  to  feel  himself  apart 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  he  shrinks  together  like 
a  withered  flower.  He  loses  confidence  in  himself, 
feels  that  he  is  in  an  unfavorable  and  subordinate  posi- 
tion ;  he  comes  to  believe  that  the  world  is  a  harsh 
and  bitter  place  for  him  and  such  as  he.  In  the  case 
of  an  "institution  child,"  such  effects  are  many  times 
magnified.  His  home,  his  dress,  the  demeanor  and 
discipline  of  everyday  life,  all  impress  him  with  the 
belief  that  fate  has  dealt  differently  and  more  harshly 
with  him  than  with  other  people  whom  he  sees.  He 
realizes  that  his  position  is  one  of  subjection,  and  of 
necessity  he  must  crouch  down  to  the  level  of  a  con- 
quered soul.  In  such  an  environment,  it  would  re- 
quire a  remarkable  child  to  give  a  good  account  of 
himself,  especially  from  the  standpoint  of   final  devel- 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  2$$ 

opment.  Even  the  one  detail  of  a  common  uniform 
is  sufficient  in  itself  to  shut  out  the  light  from  a 
child's  mind  and  soul,  and  turn  him  into  a  creature 
who  really  needs  one's  pity.  But  when  his  little  ex- 
istence is  filled  with  such  details,  when  his  environ- 
ment keeps  constantly  in  his  mind  the  facts  of  his 
unfortunate  and  contemptible  position,  he  becomes 
a  victim  of  a  system  which  chokes  and  starves  while 
it  pretends  to  nourish.  It  is,  in  truth,  a  sort  of 
slavery,  but  slavery  that  is  so  tricked  out  and  bediz- 
ened as  to  pass  for  a  joyous  philanthropy.  One  of 
the  results  of  the  whole  unfortunate  problem  is  that 
the  community,  while  thinking  to  rescue  its  children 
—  an  integral  part  of  itself  —  from  a  miserable  and 
unprofitable  life,  is  really  doing  a  great  deal  in  the 
way  of  making  such  a  life  inevitable. 

However,  a  better  method  than  this  time-honored 
one  is  easy  to  find.  Knowing  as  much  as  we  do 
about  the  necessities  of  a  child's  development,  being 
certain  that  child-life  flourishes  best  in  a  natural  home, 
we  must  find  the  solution  of  caring  for  the  State's 
wards  by  providing  surroundings  that  will  closely  imi- 
tate those  of  the  home.  Unquestionably,  this  is  pos- 
sible, and,  to  a  certain  extent,  it  has  been  done  in 
various  places.  The  noteworthy  success  which  Herr 
Wichem's  Rauhe  Haus  at  Hamburg  achieved,  dupli- 
cated to  a  certain  extent  at  the  Metteay  institution 
at  Tour,  showed  clearly  enough   the   path   that   prog- 


256  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

ress  is  to  take.  Here  a  real  attempt  was  made  to 
form  a  home.  Instead  of  great  and  cumbersome  in- 
stitutions, the  plan  of  forming  small  colonies  was 
begun,  which  reminds  one  strongly  of  the  schools 
which  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  formed.  The  plan  was 
devised  for  the  "substitution  of  individual  care  for 
mechanical  manipulation  of  masses  and  the  develop- 
ment of  energy,  nature,  wit,  and  common  sense  that 
follow  from  the  separation  into  small  groups  with 
whom  the  teacher  or  nurse  comes  into  personal  con- 
tact." So  good  an  example  was  bound  to  be  tried 
elsewhere.  To  be  sure,  in  many  cases  the  efforts 
were  tentative,  but,  nevertheless,  they  showed  prog- 
ress, and  obtained  better  results  than  under  the  older 
system.  But  if  one  had  no  other  or  more  modern 
models  than  those  of  Pestalozzi's  and  Froebel's  schools, 
most  of  all  before  a  general  acquaintance  with  their 
wise  methods  and  fine  results  brought  too  many 
scholars,  one  would  be  close  upon  the  right  manner 
of  caring  for  orphaned  and  abused  children.  The 
motto  that  was  ever  before  the  minds  of  these  two 
lovable  and  loving  men  was :  "  Come,  let  us  live  with 
our  children."  They  really  shared  their  lives  with 
their  charges,  —  studied  with  them,  worked  with  them 
in  all  manner  of  ordinary  ways,  played  with  them,  ate 
and  slept  with  them.  Between  teacher  and  scholar, 
or  one  might  better  say  guardian  and  ward,  there 
existed   the  common   bonds   of    mutual    love,   mutual 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  257 

welfare,  mutual  interests.  These  children,  instead  of 
having  a  parent's  oversight  for  a  small  part  of  the 
day  and  the  cold  comfort  of  a  stranger's  attention  for 
the  greater  part,  associated  constantly  with  a  foster- 
father  who  was  much  wiser,  more  thoughtful,  than 
most  decent  parents  are.  There  were  a  constant  play 
and  exercise  of  mind  and  body.  And  not  until  the 
system  by  its  own  growth  grew  unwieldy,  and  thus 
lost  its  proper  characteristics,  did  it  cease  to  serve  as 
one  of  the  best  methods  of  rearing  children  with 
which  we  are  acquainted. 

Coming  back  to  present  times  and  instances,  let 
us  cite  the  cases  of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales. 
These  colonies,  in  an  attempt  to  improve  their  ways, 
sought  to  abolish  institutions  by  a  system  of  board- 
ing out  their  orphan  children.  This  method,  while 
too  provisional  and  not  sufficiently  homogeneous,  had 
some  advantages  in  doing  away  with  the  crowd- 
ing of  children  together  in  large  numbers.  Out- 
side of  everything  else,  they  gained  at  least  a  recog- 
nition of  the  important  fact  that  children  may  not 
with  safety  be  herded  together  in  large  numbers. 
The  value  of  this  idea  began  to  be  felt  even  beyond 
these  colonies,  —  even  in  conservative  Europe,  —  and 
gradually  concessions  were  made  to  it.  These  con- 
cessions came  slowly,  as  one  would  expect ;  for  old 
communities  with  difficulty  change  their  ways.  But 
even  more  thoroughly  did  it  make  an  impress  in  the 
s 


258       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

United  States.  Massachusetts,  in  particular,  tried  to 
better  itself,  and  was  the  first  to  institute  a  State 
system  of  preventive  work  by  boarding  out  its  orphans 
and  deserted  children.  Some  good  results  were  almost 
immediately  apparent.  In  the  important  detail  of  in- 
fant mortality,  a  startling  change  occurred.  In  the 
first  year  of  the  new  system,  the  percentage  of  deaths 
fell  from  ninety-seven  per  cent  to  fifty  per  cent.  In 
the  following  year,  it  declined  to  thirty  per  cent,  and 
after  that  varied  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent. 

Still  another  effect  was  promptly  felt.  Where  the 
old-time  system  was  in  vogue,  with  its  large  institu- 
tions which  indiscriminately  received  undeserving  as 
well  as  deserving  cases,  children  were  too  easily  en- 
trusted to  its  care.  Proximity  to  the  children  and 
ease  in  communicating  with  them,  as  well  as  the 
seeming  ease  of  reclaiming  them  whenever  the  par- 
ents pleased,  made  commitments  to  the  asylum  very 
frequent,  much  more  frequent  than  was  necessary. 
But  where  the  large  institutions  were  abolished  and 
the  children  were  scattered  over  a  large  territory,  the 
feeling  of  parental  care  sprang  up  again,  with  the 
natural  result  that  offspring  were  not  so  lightly  aban- 
doned. Thus  in  New  York  State,  under  our  anti- 
quated system,  the  community  supports  one  in  every 
two  hundred  and  fifty-one  of  the  population ;  but  in 
Massachusetts,  with  a  wiser  method,  the  ratio  was 
reduced  to  one  in  nine  hundred  and  ninety-five.     And 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  259 

in  Michigan,  under  a  still  more  rigorous  rule,  only  one 
in  ten  thousand  required  support.  To  clinch  the  argu- 
ment on  the  other  side,  one  might  cite  the  case  of 
New  Hampshire,  which  recently  decided  to  support 
dependent  children  in  private  institutions  at  the  public 
expense,  with  the  same  freedom  from  restrictions  as 
one  sees  in  New  York  and  California.  As  one  would 
expect,  the  regular  results  of  increased  dependence 
began  to  assert  themselves.  In  addition,  it  is  in  place 
to  quote  the  success  of  the  Lyman  School  and  the 
State  Industrial  School  at  Lancaster,  both  carried  on 
under  the  methods  in  use  in  Massachusetts,  where 
the  success  has  been  noteworthy.  They  have  proved 
how  possible  it  is  to  reduce  the  evils  from  which 
society  has  so  long  suffered,  to  convert  worthless 
material  into  approximately  valuable  material,  to  make 
a  large  proportion  of  the  deserted,  the  abused,  the 
practically  brutalized  population  into  decent  citizens. 
Such  a  change  is  a  truly  remarkable  one,  and  has  a 
bearing  upon  the  future  welfare  and  improvement  of 
society  that  cannot  be  too  highly  appreciated. 

Keeping  these  instances  in  mind,  and  combining 
them  with  the  more  theoretical  truths  of  a  child's 
development  which  we  know,  the  way  in  which  the 
wards  of  the  State  should  be  brought  up  is  fairly 
clear.  All  thought  of  massing  them  in  large  insti- 
tutions, whether  conducted  under  private  or  public 
management,    should   be   absolutely   put    aside.      The 


26o  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

more  one  appreciates  how  feeble  in  stable  conditions 
and  how  strong  in  potential  changes  an  infant  is,  the 
more  clearly  one  sees  that  he  should  have  more  than 
food  and  clothing.  The  additional  element  may  be 
supplied  by  individual  care  and  the  willingness  to 
undergo  self-sacrifice  which  comes  from  personal 
attachment.  Such  care  and  attachment  the  normal 
woman,  fairly  well  brought  up,  is  capable  and  willing 
to  give.  One  of  the  main  needs  is  to  entrust  the  chil- 
dren to  as  good  a  representative  of  normal  womanhood 
as  it  is  possible  to  find.  That  it  is  easily  possible  to 
realize  the  opportunity  to  enlist  a  high  class  of  women 
in  this  work  is  clearly  proved  by  the  readiness  with 
which  such  women  agree  to  adopt  young  children,  to 
take  upon  themselves  the  whole  responsibility  of  their 
physical  and  mental  care.  Mrs.  Richardson,  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity, 
gives  evidence  on  this  point,  when  she  says  that  "in 
recent  years  the  opportunities  for  obtaining  homes  by 
legal  adoption  into  good  families  have  been  so  great 
that  it  is  rarely  that  a  child  reaches  the  age  of  three 
years  without  being  permanently  and  satisfactorily 
provided  for."  One  might  confidently  say  that  these 
opportunities  would  be  still  more  plentiful  if  women 
were  convinced  —  as  they  doubtless  will  be  —  of  the 
safety  of  adopting  an  infant  of  unknown  parentage. 
I  When  the  community  come  to  realize  that  a  child's 
j    environment   is    as   a   rule   more    important   than   his 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  26 1 

heredity,  there  will  be  still  less  necessity  for  great 
infant  asylums.  In  fact,  the  only  institution  of  this 
kind  that  is  permissible  is  a  receiving  station,  a  sort 
of  clearing  house,  which  shall  be  used  as  headquarters 
where  the  routine  business  of  placing  children  and 
overseeing  them  is  carried  on. 

Such  children  as  are  not  adopted  should  be  put  in 
homes  of  not  more  than  ten  little  ones.  These  homes 
could  be  grouped  in  colonies  so  that  the  proper  authori- 
ties could  easily  oversee  them.  Supplies  could  be  pur- 
chased in  large  quantities  and  delivered  on  requisition 
according  to  need.  Each  home  could  be  immediately 
controlled  by  a  cottage  "  mother,"  who  should  have  a 
natural  and  full  authority.  The  children  should  be  kept 
in  this  manner  until  they  were  able  by  apprenticeship  or 
individual  work  to  support  themselves.  The  close  asso- 
ciation of  years  would  form  the  strongest  bonds  between 
the  foster-mother  and  her  charges,  and  the  small  num- 
ber of  children  entrusted  to  each  woman  would  make 
possible  the  growth  of  affection,  individual  interest,  and 
the  feeling  of  responsibility.  Each  child,  as  he  grew 
up,  would  go  through  the  ordinary  useful  experience  of 
the  ordinary  home,  the  only  experience  which  is  able 
to  fit  him  for  the  duties  of  worker,  spouse  and  parent. 
Here  would  be  a  feeling  of  solidarity,  a  sense  of  active 
and  passive  ownership,  a  happy  conviction  of  having  a 
place  in  the  world.  The  education  of  the  children 
could  be  conducted  in  village  schools  in  the  same  way 


262  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   CHILD 

that  public  education  is  generally  administered.  And 
the  children  would  finally  come  to  take  their  places  in 
the  world  with  connections  and  memories  that  would  be 
as  binding,  as  well  known,  and  as  respectable  as  those 
of  people  with  a  natural  and  honorable  parentage. 

The  main  object  of  these  cottage  homes  would  be  to 
counterfeit,  as  closely  as  possible,  the  real  home  as  we 
know  it,  in  its  healthy  phases.  The  same  methods  of 
control,  of  occupation,  of  clothing,  of  food,  of  recreation, 
could  be  employed  in  one  as  well  as  in  the  other.  The 
conditions  of  actual,  practical  life  would  be  equally 
illustrated  in  both.  The  number  of  children  in  each 
home  would  be  so  restricted  that  each  child  would 
receive  a  fairly  proper  amount  of  attention.  As  a 
result,  his  character  and  individuality  would  have  an 
opportunity  to  assert  themselves.  At  the  same  time, 
the  very  important  factor  of  the  finer  feelings  would 
not  be  neglected.  For  the  number  of  children  living 
together  would  be  small  enough  to  encourage  the 
closest  interdependencies  between  them  and  the  cot- 
tage mother.  One  could  look  forward  to  the  future  of 
these  children  with  the  same  confidence  with  which 
one  regards  the  outlook  of  well-cared-for  children  in 
ordinary  life. 

Another  fact  of  importance  is  that  such  work  would 
appeal  to  many  women  of  decided  abilities  who  are 
either  idle  or  engaged  in  less  valuable  work.  For  the 
same  reasons  that  the  professional  nursing  of  the  sick 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  263 

is  now  SO  eagerly  taken  up  by  a  high  class  of  women, 
this  calling  would  be  popular.  But  in  addition,  there 
are  many  additional  reasons,  based  upon  the  opportu- 
nity for  exercising  affection,  for  forming  much  more 
permanent  ties,  for  having  a  very  definite  influence  in 
the  world,  why  an  even  higher  grade  of  women  would 
gladly  assume  this  calling  as  a  life  work.  Most  of  all, 
if  the  applicants  for  positions  as  foster-mothers  received 
an  equally  valuable  training  as  trained  nurses  enjoy, 
the  results  of  their  work  might  gratify  very  high 
expectations. 

That  children  brought  up  under  substitute  care 
can  have  a  successful  training  has  been  proved  by 
the  course  pursued  at  Girard  College.  Although  this 
institution  has  the  disadvantage  of  great  size,  as  well 
as  the  fact  that  its  charges  are  not  accepted  in  in- 
fancy, thus  depriving  them  of  the  good  effects  of 
careful  and  systematic  oversight  in  their  earliest 
years,  nevertheless,  the  general  methods  of  govern- 
ment are  so  superior  to  what  one  usually  finds  in  in- 
stitutions for  orphans,  that  the  results  are,  after  all, 
not  surprising.  Children  may  not  be  accepted  in 
infancy,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  their  residence  in 
the  institution  may  continue  until  they  are  of  eigh- 
teen years  of  age.  Their  guardians  and  instructors 
are  of  a  high  class,  and  on  account  of  their  perma- 
nent and  responsible  positions,  as  well  as  their  men- 
tal superiority,  come   to  have  a   real   interest   in   the 


264  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

boys,  that  shows  itself  in  the  existence  of  affectionate 
relationship  between  pupil  and  teacher.  The  inmates, 
instead  of  feeling  that  they  are  outcasts  and  pariahs, 
have  a  true  pride  in  their  surroundings,  and  act  it 
out  in  their  later  lives.  For  such  reasons  as  these. 
President  Fetteroff  is  able  to  say :  "  Judging  from 
what  I  see  of  our  graduates,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  they  do  better  in  life  than  the  same  number  of 
boys  picked  from  the  public  schools."  And  this 
occurs,  in  spite  of  the  non-natural  and  artificial  en- 
vironment produced  by  guardians  who  take  up  the 
work  as  a  profession.  It  does  not  need  an  unusually 
clear  sight  to  see  that  if  the  State's  children  were 
from  the  beginning  brought  up  under  still  more  favor- 
able auspices,  if  they  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  indi- 
vidual care,  affection  and  training,  if  their  associations 
and  examples  were  of  the  same  nature  as  one  finds 
in  good  families,  if  their  practical  experiences  were 
such  as  to  fit  them  for  the  demands  of  actual  life, 
one  would  not  have  to  think  of  institutions  for  chil- 
dren as  the  breeding  nests  of  pauperism,  vice,  and 
crime.  In  the  community,  as  it  now  exists,  there 
is  every  element  which  is  necessary  to  the  realization 
of  this  plan ;  but  instead  of  being  wisely  used,  it  is 
wasted.  Too  much  money  is  now  spent ;  too  much 
effort  on  the  part  of  philanthropic  persons  of  all  sorts 
is  scattered  over  a  ragged  system ;  too  many  lives 
are  spoiled.     In  the  face  of  all  this,  so  long  as  the 


INSTITUTIONAL  LIFE  265 

general  public  is  willing  to  learn  and  apply  some 
plain  biological  truths,  there  is  a  prospect  of  an  im- 
mense betterment.  Much  of  the  so-called  defective 
population  can  be  turned  into  really  valuable  citizens, 
who  not  only  would  render  unnecessary  the  vast  ex- 
penses now  necessary  for  charities  and  corrections, 
but  would  also  be  fertile  producers  and  upholders  of 
what  is  conservative  and  fine  in  the  community. 
The  sooner  we  come  to  forget  the  idea  that  the  de- 
pendent children  of  the  State  are  a  burden,  and 
come  to  recognize  that  they  are  so  much  raw  mate- 
rial waiting  to  be  developed,  the  sooner  shall  we  gain ; 
the  reward  of  a  wise  self-interest,  of  common  sense, 
of  broad  ideals. 


CHAPTER   XI 

The  Profession  of  Maternity 

The  remarkable  progress  of  the  higher  education  of 
women  is  a  matter  of  everyday  comment.  Notwith- 
standing the  opposition  which  every  comparatively  new 
movement  naturally  meets,  the  belief  in  it  has  grown  in 
every  direction ;  so  that  it  is  common  to  find  families 
where  the  young  women  have  had  the  same  training 
as  their  brothers,  where,  moreover,  they  have  shown 
so  good  an  intellectual  receptivity  that  the  higher 
education  of  women,  as  is  claimed  by  its  adherents, 
has  thoroughly  justified  itself.  Besides  this,  so  many 
women  have  entered  professional  callings  of  all  kinds, 
that  the  old-time  claim  of  difference  in  intellectual 
function  between  them  and  men  has  seemingly  been 
forced  out  of  existence.  In  addition,  one  meets  not 
only  women  doctors,  women  lawyers,  architects  and 
preachers,  but  also  those  who  have  entered  the  non- 
professional employments.  And  now  it  seems  that 
there  is  no  occupation  belonging  exclusively  to  men. 
While  this  tendency  on  the  face  of  it  is  sufficiently 
remarkable,  nevertheless,  the  change  in  methods  and 
opinions  which  underlie  it  are  still  more  noteworthy. 

The  reproach  of  uselessness,  frivolity    and  petty  or- 

266 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  26/ 

namentation  has  been  laid  against  the  education  of 
women  even  more  than  against  that  of  their  brothers 
and  fathers.  For  years  back  the  charge  was  made  that 
the  main  object  of  their  training  was  decorative.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  charge  was  true.  Not  only 
were  the  methods  of  instruction  exceedingly  faulty, 
but  also  the  subjects  of  instruction  were  plainly  de- 
signed for  the  effect  it  might  have  upon  the  estimation 
in  which  the  girls  were  held.  The  main  consideration 
sought  was  to  make  them  seem  educated,  refined, 
endued  with  the  characteristics  of  the  most  favorably 
placed  class  in  the  community.  Such  a  class  was 
supposed  to  be  the  rich,  the  leisure  class,  people  who 
were  beyond  the  need  of  useful  and  productive  work, 
who  therefore  had  the  opportunity  of  placing  most 
stress  upon  the  refinements,  the  luxuries  and  the 
unnecessary  things  in  life.  The  fact  that  these  per- 
sons were  able  to  buy  the  services  of  those  who  did 
the  common,  everyday  work  of  the  world  placed  the 
latter  in  a  seemingly  inferior  position.  Each  person, 
feeling  himself  somewhat  higher  in  the  scale  than 
those  in  the  class  below  him,  and  aiming  to  equal  the 
circumstances  and  opportunities  of  the  rank  above 
him,  strove  to  obtain  the  characteristic  marks  of  supe- 
riority. These  marks  were  usually  evidences  of  luxury, 
luxury-fetiches,  things  which  argued  the  possession  of 
more  than  what  was  really  essential  to  life  or  even 
comfort. 


268       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

This  is  one  of  the  main  reasons  why  so  many 
unnecessary  elements  have  been  included  in  a  girl's 
education.  For  this  reason  they  have  been  taught 
a  smattering  of  French,  German  and  Italian;  have 
been  taught  a  trifle  about  art  and  music ;  have  been 
instructed  in  the  petty  details  of  deportment  and 
elocution,  of  the  humanities.  Their  demonstrations 
and  use  of  abilities  in  these  directions  have  rarely  had 
any  real,  practical  value  in  the  conduct  of  their  lives ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  have  added  sources  of  complexity, 
dissatisfaction  and  inefficiency.  Their  attempts  at 
piano-playing,  at  drawing  and  painting,  at  an  intelli- 
gent demonstration  of  literary  and  scientific  knowledge, 
were  far  from  being  elevating  to  themselves  or  others. 
Outside  of  being  luxury-fetiches,  they  had  no  good 
reason  for  existence.  Most  of  all  has  the  training 
of  girls  been  not  appropriate  to  the  highest  work  of 
which  they  were  capable,  of  which,  moreover,  society 
stood  in  greatest  need.  Therefore,  with  the  spread 
of  information  and  the  broadening  of  ideas,  the  ne- 
cessity of  giving  them  a  better  and  more  useful 
training  became  more  and  more  apparent.  When,  on 
account  of  changing  industrial  conditions,  the  com- 
petition in  life  became  severer,  when  a  disposition 
to  laxer  ideas  concerning  the  sanctity  of  rank  and 
caste  showed  itself,  when  women  began  to  feel  the 
need  economically  and  morally  of  occupying  positions 
of  greater  productive  value,  the  tendency  to  branch 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  269 

out  in  any  and  every  line  of  activity  grew  with  a 
remarkable  vigor.  One  might  with  safety  say,  that 
they  have  not  observed  the  bounds  of  moderation ; 
that  in  searching  for  new  opportunities,  they  have  at 
times  overstepped  the  limits  set  by  their  functional 
and  social  position.  As  a  result,  the  fields  of  work 
formerly  held  exclusively  by  men  have  been  more  and 
more  energetically  invaded  by  women ;  industrially 
the  barriers  which  separated  the  sexes  have  been 
assiduously  assailed,  until  there  is  now  no  real  line 
at  which  one  may  say  that  a  man's  work  ends  and 
a  woman's  begins. 

Naturally,  there  has  been  a  lack  of  moderation  in 
all  this ;  the  hand  has  swung  too  far  around  the  dial, 
until  its  direction  is  as  eccentric  as  it  ever  was.  The 
principal  consideration  is,  that  in  the  strain  and  stress 
of  active  life,  no  regard  is  held  for  what  industries 
may  be  most  profitable  to  the  individual  woman  and 
the  community.  The  great  idea  seems  to  be  that 
she  must  do  something,  must  earn  money,  must  as- 
sume a  certain  share  of  active  responsibility  by  going 
out  into  the  world  and  grappling  with  its  harsh  con- 
ditions. To  the  former  ideas  of  luxury-fetichism  she 
has  added  the  idols  of  theoretic  equality,  until  the 
resulting  worship  is,  indeed,  a  remarkable  mixture. 
Such  equality  has  ever  been  a  strange  thing.  It 
mixes  real  with  fancied  conditions ;  true  with  ficti- 
tious needs  in  human  nature;  true  psychological  laws 


270       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

with  preconceived  notions  of  necessity.  It  is  apt  to 
long  for  a  state  of  things  that  could  not  be  profitable 
to  any  one.  It  is  blind,  and  seeks  to  go  its  way 
regardless  of  limitations  and  obstacles  that  wisdom 
prompts  one  to  take  into  account.  This  idea  of  equal- 
ity, in  its  jealous  avarice,  tries  to  obtain  a  privilege 
or  a  right  not  because  it  is  in  itself  desirable,  but, 
rather,  because  one  class  of  people  and  not  another  pos- 
sesses it.  The  question  of  the  value  of  such  a  privilege 
seems  not  to  be  worthy  of  consideration.  Thus,  in 
the  matter  of  the  so-called  higher  education,  the 
demand  for  a  woman's  learning  Greek,  for  exam- 
ple, is  usually  made  not  because  the  study  of  that  lan- 
guage is  thought  to  bring  with  it  any  considerable 
value,  but  merely  because  young  men  study  it.  There 
is  no  greater  respect  now  than  formerly  for  the  an- 
cient languages ;  in  all  likelihood  there  is  even  less. 
Doubtless  there  is  good  enough  ground  for  this, 
because  the  smattering  which  the  ordinary  college 
graduate  possesses  is  not  worthy  of  great  apprecia- 
tion. The  main  reason  for  this  demand  is,  after  all,  a 
reason  of  defiance,  of  insistence  upon  outward  forms, 
of  proving  that  there  is  and  ought  to  be  no  distinc- 
tion between  one  person  and  another,  between  men 
and  women. 

But  in  spite  of  disadvantages  such  as  have  been 
alluded  to,  there  has  been  one  step  of  immense  im- 
portance, one  stride  in  the  right  direction.     With  the 


THE   PROFESSION   OF   MATERNITY  2/1 

competition  by  women  in  industrial  markets,  the  neces- 
sity of  careful  and  exact  preparation  for  the  work  in 
hand  has  to  a  certain  extent  received  recognition.  The 
world  has  always  recognized  this  in  regard  to  men, 
who  unconsciously  and  as  a  matter  of  course  follow 
the  idea  in  their  training  for  active  life.  From  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  they  expect  to  obtain  a  logical 
preparation  for  a  certain  work  before  entering  upon 
its  duties ;  and  so  radical  is  this  necessity  supposed 
to  be  that  the  man  who  disregards  it  would  in  many 
cases  suffer  both  legal  and  social  penalties.  The  en- 
gineer who  tried  to  run  a  locomotive  without  a  proper 
training  and  knowledge,  the  physician  who  undertook 
the  treatment  of  disease,  the  dressmaker  who  risked 
the  value  of  the  customer's  materials,  the  architect 
who  dared  to  build  structures  that  might  endanger 
other  people's  lives  and  money,  —  these,  or  any  other 
workers,  who  assume  responsibilities  for  which  they 
are  not  fitted,  have  been  and  are  severely  punished 
for  their  lack  of  preparation  and  the  recklessness  of 
their  undertakings.  Moreover,  in  proportion  to  the 
importance  of  the  interests  at  stake  have  the  punish- 
ments—  both  legal  and  social  —  been  set.  It  accords 
with  conceptions  of  justice  that  responsibilities  should 
not  be  undertaken  without  good  reason  for  believing 
that  there  is  a  sufficient  basis  of  capability  present 
upon  which  to  base  the  prospect  of  approximately 
fair  success. 


272      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

Here  is  one  of  the  greatest  faults  in  our  methods  of 
preparing  women  for  active  life ;  and  in  this  respect 
their  preparation  still  differs  radically  from  that  of  their 
brothers.  A  young  man's  training  is  a  combination  of 
utility  and  decoration,  with  the  elements  of  utility  in 
predominance.  The  sentiment  for  the  greater  claims 
of  utility  has  been  so  strongly  insisted  upon  that  there 
has  been  danger  of  losing  sight  of  the  value  of  the 
cultural  element.  In  the  education  of  young  women 
the  opposite  is  still  held,  even  where  the  "higher" 
education  has  asserted  itself.  Here,  the  principal 
object  seems  to  be  an  elaboration  of  the  old-time  aim, — 
an  ambition  to  give  the  young  woman  an  intellectual 
experience  that  is  distinctive,  unusual,  characteristic  of 
luxury  rather  than  utility.  A  young  man's  training 
is  designed  to  further  his  ability  to  accomplish  definite 
work  in  the  world ;  his  sister's  is  still  arranged  on  the 
plan  of  making  her  appear  better  cared  for,  more 
advantageously  placed,  better  apparelled  in  mental  gar- 
ments than  her  neighbors.  There  is  little  or  no  view 
of  a  finer  preparation  for  a  life  work,  of  augmenting  her 
real  utility  in  the  world.  Therefore,  it  is  quite  natural 
that  when,  on  account  of  necessity  or  choice,  she 
attempts  to  broaden  her  horizon,  the  only  way  that 
seems  open  to  her  is  in  some  industrial,  pursuit  by 
which  she  comes  into  competition  with  her  brother, 
and  divides  with  him  the  possible  money-rewards  of 
the  business  world. 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  2/3 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  women  have  taken  upon 
themselves  so  many  new  activities,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  often  capable  of  earning  a  respectable 
wage,  one  is  met  by  the  strange  fact  that  their  efforts 
have  not,  on  the  whole,  brought  greater  ease  and  physi- 
cal comfort  to  the  working  part  of  the  community. 
Competition  is  severer  than  before,  the  struggle  to 
exist  is  fiercer  than  ever  before.  Not  only  is  it  said 
that  the  rich  are  getting  richer  and  the  poor  poorer, 
but  also  it  is  claimed  that  a  greater  amount  of  exertion 
than  in  former  times  is  necessary  to  keep  up  the  stand- 
ard of  the  great  middle  class,  the  real  foundation  of 
the  social  fabric.  The  question  consequently  arises, 
whether  the  new  activities  of  women  pay ;  whether  the 
world  is  really  the  better  for  their  change  of  condition. 
Many  practically  minded  people  answer  this  in  the 
negative,  claiming  that  for  every  woman  who  obtains 
a  position  which  a  man  formerly  held,  the  family  that 
is  dependent  upon  the  man's  exertions  is  left,  tempo- 
rarily at  least,  without  the  means  of  livelihood.  More- 
over, they  add,  the  influx  of  women  into  an  industry 
is  the  signal  for  decrease  in  wages.  They  go  on  to 
explain  that  this  fall  in  wages  results  from  the  facts 
that  women  have  fewer  burdens,  that  they  use  less  judg- 
ment in  their  work  than  men,  and  that,  since  they 
remain  in  their  positions  only  until  they  have  a  satis- 
factory opportunity  to  marry,  they  are  less  permanent. 
While  marriage  means  greater  steadiness  and  reliability 


274       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

in  the  man,  in  the  woman  it  means  resignation  from 
the  position  to  which  she  has  become  trained.  For 
such  and  other  allied  reasons,  it  is  held,  she  is  from 
the  beginning  less  valuable  potentially  to  her  employers 
than  the  male  competitor. 

But  a  further  consideration  arises  which  overshadows 
the  action  and  the  fate  of  the  woman  who  partly  or 
wholly  earns  her  own  living.  The  large  majority  of 
women  of  all  sorts  marry.  They  do  this  because  it 
seems  to  them  and  the  world  their  highest  place  and 
function,  where  they  will  be  of  most  worth  to  them- 
selves and  the  community.  The  mere  fact  that  in 
this  way  a  woman  comes  to  have  a  controlling  voice 
in  a  household,  that  in  her  hands  lies  the  making 
or  unmaking  of  her  children's  careers,  that  being  the 
centre  of  a  household  she  becomes  the  centre  of  a 
widely  radiating  influence,  —  all  this  is  a  matter  of 
supreme  importance.  It  is  unnecessary  to  demonstrate 
that  her  position  as  wife  and  mother  is  the  highest 
which  she  could  possibly  attain.  Not  only  has  the 
world  done  that  most  thoroughly,  but  also  nature 
has  definitely  provided  against  any  refutation  of  it. 
Thereupon  the  question  follows,  whether  the  course 
of  modern  effort  and  modern  training  has  raised  the 
general  standard  of  her  efficiency  as  a  wife  and  mother. 
The  whole  matter  resolves  itself  into  an  inquiry  con- 
cerning the  requirements  in  ability  to  which  a  woman 
who  wishes  to  embody  a  high  type  of  wife  and  mother 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  2/5 

must  answer.  Even  more  may  the  subject  be  sim- 
plified ;  for,  since  the  maternal  duties  include  and 
overweigh  the  uxorial,  the  natural  conclusion  must 
be  that  the  woman  who  best  knows  how  to  rear  her 
children  is  the  one  who  occupies  the  highest  place 
in  the  world ;  the  inquiry  may  then  be  confined  to  the 
ideas  and  methods  of  best  attaining  this  end.  One 
would  suppose,  in  this  age  of  universal  improvements, 
of  changing  customs,  that  matters  of  so  much  impor- 
tance would  be  the  first  in  the  mind  of  every  woman, 
especially  every  mother.  The  methods  of  past  times, 
with  their  burdensome  decorations,  are  nowadays 
treated  with  so  little  reverence  and  have  been  so 
much  developed  into  the  methods  of  to-day  that  with- 
out thought  the  conclusion  would  hold  that  the  chil- 
dren of  this  time  should  have  a  wiser  regimen  than 
their  ancestors  at  a  like  age ;  and  likewise  that  the 
women  of  to-day  ought  to  show  a  better  discipline,  a 
wider  scope  of  view,  a  wiser  application  of  right  prin- 
ciples in  the  performance  of  their  higher  duties  than 
ever  before. 

Therefore,  one  is  surprised  to  find  that  the  ex- 
pected improvement  in  this  most  important  function 
does  not  exist.  In  other  respects  women  have  un- 
doubtedly made  progress.  They  have  been  energetic 
enough  in  assimilating  ideas  in  intellectual  and  artistic 
culture,  in  politics,  in  the  matter  of  their  "rights," 
in  business.     But  this  very  energy,  instead  of  indue- 


2/6  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   CHILD 

ing  a  cognate  energy  in  the  line  of  maternal  duties, 
seemingly  has  turned  their  attention  from  them.  By 
a  strange  lack  of  logic,  they  have  not  applied  to  this 
subject  their  acquired  conceptions  of  the  necessity 
of  training  and  discipline,  so  that  a  young  woman 
unhesitatingly  assumes  the  greatest  responsibilities 
with  no  further  preparation  than  her  grandmother  pos- 
sessed. What  is  even  sadder  is  that  there  is  no 
perception  of  the  necessity  of  such  preparation.  Thus 
a  girl  is  graduated  from  school,  having  a  smattering 
of  literature,  languages,  music,  grammar,  mathematics, 
which  have  not  been  taught  in  their  physiological 
order  nor  in  a  manner  to  give  the  best  amount  of 
normal  mental  exercise,  and  straightway  considers  her- 
self competent  to  have  the  complete  charge,  the  full- 
est authority,  the  main  decision  in  all  matters  of 
health  and  development,  physical  training  and  spirit- 
ual culture  of  the  children  who  may  in  the  natural 
order  of  things  become  her  offspring.  When  on  ac- 
count of  weakness,  indolence,  social  duties,  or  what 
she  considers  the  dignity  of  her  position,  she  feels 
that  some  or  all  of  the  care  of  the  child  should  be 
taken  off  her  hands,  she  hires  some  strange  girl  or 
woman,  usually  of  the  social  and  intellectual  grade 
of  the  peasant,  to  act  as  a  sort  of  foster-mother.  If 
this  foster-mother,  by  whatever  means  she  may  know, 
is  able  to  keep  the  child  quiet,  if  she  does  not  too 
palpably  abuse  him,  if  she  tells  him  any  and  all  sorts 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  277 

of  tales,  —  no  matter  what  her  language,  her  supersti- 
tions, or  her  unformed  ideas  may  be,  —  she  is  consid- 
ered a  fit  and  able  nurse,  who  is  doing  everything  that 
the  parents  can  reasonably  ask  of  her. 

If  this  seems  a  harsh  characterization,  scrutiny  will 
show  that  it  is  not  overdrawn.  Indeed,  the  mother 
herself,  in  many  ways,  presents  no  great  improvement 
upon  it.  Whatever  training  she  may  have  had  has  not 
been  of  the  kind  to  realize  or  cope  with  the  problems 
which  are  bound  to  confront  her.  These  problems  are 
matters  of  physiology,  psychology,  hygiene,  biology. 
And  because  they  are  called  by  long  names  does  not 
lessen  their  importance.  And  not  only  is  a  knowledge 
of  these  subjects  necessary,  but  also  it  is  desirable  that 
one  should  cultivate  the  state  of  mind  which  makes  a 
useful  consideration  of  them  easy  and  natural.  The 
method  of  thought  which  one  must  use  in  dealing  with 
them  requires  no  unusual  power  of  mind  ;  but  it  does 
call  for  a  fair  amount  of  regulated  thought,  of  discipline, 
of  willingness  to  abide  by  a  definite  and  logical  relation 
of  cause  and  effect.  These  are  elements  which,  unfort- 
unately, the  ordinary  young  woman,  in  attempting  to 
fulfil  her  maternal  duties,  is  not  prepared  to  use. 

In  the  first  place,  she  should  have  some  idea  of  the 
groundwork  of  biology.  She  should  be  acquainted  with 
the  natural  history  of  animal  forms ;  she  should  know 
something  of  the  wonderful  development  of  cell  life ; 
she  should  be  able  to  understand  the  rudimentary  laws, 


278       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

at  least,  of  the  correlation  of  organic  forces.  Such 
things  are  absolutely  essential  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
multitudinous  influences  which  go  to  make  up  the  sum 
of  the  child's  nutrition,  to  the  building  up  or  the  tear- 
ing down  of  the  minute  cells  which  in  their  complexity 
make  up  the  completed  mind  and  body.  Here  is  a 
study  which  is  more  than  interesting  —  it  is  even 
fascinating,  which  abounds  in  romantic  interest,  which 
carries  with  it  a  careful  and  patient  exercise  of  the 
reasoning  faculty  that  is  of  prime  importance.  There 
is  the  same  need  of  this  knowledge  as  there  is  of  the 
foundations  upon  which  the  superstructure  of  any  pro- 
fession is  raised.  As  well  might  an  architect  be  igno- 
rant of  the  minute  and  gross  characteristics  of  the 
stone  which  he  uses,  or  a  manufacturer  of  the  raw 
materials  of  which  his  products  are  made.  Not  other- 
wise is  one  able  to  know  the  full  meaning  of  physical 
life, — how  it  begins,  continues  and  decays.  Surely  not 
otherwise  can  a  mother  know  how  to  care  for  the  won- 
derful development  of  the  infant  whose  whole  life 
depends  upon  her  knowledge  and  foresight.  If  she 
were  able  to  note  the  marvellous  growth  and  changes 
in  the  tender  cotyledons  of  a  plant,  the  sensitive  de- 
meanor of  the  blood-corpuscles  in  a  frog's  circulation, 
the  occurrence  of  chlorophyl  granules  and  the  changes 
which  their  presence  brings,  she  certainly  would  be 
in  a  better  position  to  appreciate  the  workings  of  her 
baby's  body,  more  able  intelligently  to  encourage  favor- 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  279 

able  and  discourage  unfavorable  influences.  Her  sense 
of  the  importance,  the  sacredness  of  trust  which  her 
relationship  puts  upon  her  would  be  vastly  increased. 
And  as  a  result,  her  duties  would  be  ever  so  much 
better  performed. 

At  the  same  time,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  physi- 
ology is  fully  as  essential.  If  the  same  amount  of  time 
that  is  now  devoted  to  the  stupefying  study  of  gram- 
mar, of  the  battles  of  some  ancient  war-lord  whose 
main  claim  to  distinction  was  a  faculty  for  oppressing 
and  killing  off  the  peasantry  on  his  lands,  of  the  intri- 
cate casuistries  of  so-called  mental  and  moral  philoso- 
phy, were  given  to  an  understanding  of  the  functions 
for  the  human  body,  its  methods  of  reaction  and  the 
phenomena  of  its  metabolism,  the  benefits  of  the 
change  would  be  too  great  to  be  easily  computed. 
This  change  would  mean  a  knowledge  of  what  most, 
rather  than  of  what  least,  concerns  one.  Comparing 
great  things  with  small,  it  would  be  analogous  to  the 
relative  importance  of  knowing,  on  the  one  hand,  all 
the  necessary  details  of  one's  household,  upon  which 
the  comfort,  health  and  happiness  of  the  inmates  rest, 
and,  on  the  other,  of  being  acquainted  with  the  petty 
political  vicissitudes  of  a  remote  South  American  city. 
In  making  such  a  choice  there  is  no  doubt  on  which 
side  any  sensible  person  should  stand.  And  likewise, 
in  an  impartially  considered  scheme  of  education  for  a 
girl,  there  is  as  little  uncertainty  concerning  the  value 


280       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

of  the  study  of  physiology.  When  the  girl  becomes  a 
mother,  she  would  not  be  apt,  in  the  most  important 
matters  of  life,  to  depend  upon  the  ignorance  of  a 
nurse-maid,  the  garrulous  superstition  of  uninformed 
neighbors,  or  the  ofttimes  partial  and  one-sided  instruc- 
tion of  her  attending  physician,  who,  on  account  of  her 
very  ignorance,  is  unable  to  give  more  than  incomplete 
instruction.  With  a  proper  education  she  would  know 
the  meaning  of  the  words  food  and  sleep ;  she  would 
know  something  of  their  overwhelming  importance 
upon  the  future  being  and  career  of  her  child,  who  in 
his  turn  is  to  be  one  of  the  world's  citizens,  with  full 
capacity  for  good  and  evil.  Knowing  what  were  nor- 
mal functions,  she  would  be  able  to  recognize  and 
guard  against  deviations  from  them.  No  day  would 
pass  in  which  she  would  not  find  opportunity  to  exer- 
cise self-restraint,  keen  observation  and  sensible  know- 
ledge in  furthering  the  normal  and  healthful  evolution 
of  her  child.  In  proportion  to  her  approximation  to  a 
really  high  standard,  this  evolution  ought  to  stand  for 
her  as  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world. 

If  the  laws  governing  the  body  are  of  so  much  im- 
portance, those  controHing  the  mental  action  are  fully 
as  worthy  of  consideration.  To  know  how  the  mind 
works,  the  order  of  its  unfolding,  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  the  various  elements  which  go  to  make  a  nice 
equilibrium,  —  these  things  are  of  no  little  value.  In 
the  presence  of  a  knowledge  of  psychology,  there  would 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  28 1 

not  be  so  much  confusion  as  to  what  children  should 
learn,  hear  and  see.  The  probable  effect  of  the  various 
experiences  in  life  would  not  be  so  problematical,  and  a 
greater  freedom  in  relation  would  exist  between  child 
and  parent.  At  the  same  time,  an  intelligent  supervi- 
sion of  the  processes  of  growth,  the  gradual  unfolding  of 
the  little  one's  mind,  would  be  exceedingly  stimulating 
to  the  mother.  It  would  weightily  impress  her  with 
the  nascent  possibilities  of  her  child,  with  the  responsi- 
bilities which  she  has  taken  upon  her,  with  the  solemn 
import  of  life.  How  vastly  superior  would  this  be  to  a 
frittering  away  of  time  in  acquiring  intellectual  decora- 
tions and  trimmings ;  in  learning  valueless  pieces  of 
music,  especially,  as  in  most  cases,  when  there  is  no 
likelihood  or  possibility  of  real  artistic  excellence;  of 
obtaining  a  cursory  and  unhomogeneous  acquaintance 
with  literature.  Such  a  better  knowledge  would  pro- 
mote the  mother's  authority,  and  strengthen  the  child's 
feeling  of  respect.  Not  only  would  she  be  better  able 
to  deal  with  the  varying  phases  of  the  budding  mind, 
but  also  she  would  be  able  to  foresee  what  those  phases 
would  be  apt  to  be,  their  rightful  interpretation,  their 
relative  importance  and  their  imperative  needs  in 
treatment.  In  the  face  of  this  information,  she  would 
rightly  regard  herself  as  having  some  claim  on  the 
respect  which  ought  to  be  attached  to  the  proud  name 
of  mother,  on  the  prerogatives  and  privileges  which 
belong  to  the  noblest  vocation  in  life. 


282  THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   CHILD 

In  addition  to  this,  she  must  recognize  that  her 
duties,  while  partly  philosophical,  also  have  their  prac- 
tical side.  The  little  body  that  is  absolutely  in  her 
power  and  care  must  be  fed  and  nurtured,  must  receive 
the  physical  materials  upon  which  it  works  in  order  to 
elaborate  bone  and  muscle  and  nerve  tissue.  These 
materials  should  be  so  prepared  as  to  give  the  maxi- 
mum amount  of  return  in  strength  for  the  minimum 
amount  of  energy  expended  in  converting  them  for  the 
uses  of  the  organism.  Thus  the  question  of  food  be- 
comes one  of  basal  importance.  The  mother  should 
thoroughly  know  the  constitution  of  the  usual  articles 
of  diet,  their  chemical  value,  what  elements  of  strength 
each  is  capable  of  giving  and  the  differential  distinc- 
tions between  them.  She  should  know  not  only  their 
ordinary  methods  of  preparation,  but  also  the  reasons 
for  these  methods,  their  respective  values,  and  their 
proper  effect  upon  the  general  economy.  Such  a 
knowledge  of  applied  chemistry  is  certainly  not  over- 
difficult  of  acquirement,  is  easily  obtained  in  the  time 
usually  devoted  to  the  ordinary  school  work,  especially 
in  the  more  advanced  grades,  and  at  the  same  time  has 
all  the  advantages  of  intellectual  exercise  which  girls 
now  receive.  It  undoubtedly  has  as  many  of  these  ad- 
vantages as  political  economy — as  now  taught — can 
give,  as  proficiency  in  the  Delsartean  system,  or  as 
practice  in  sketching  and  painting  can  give.  It  would 
confer  more  of  intrinsic  value  instead  of  extrinsic  at- 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  283 

traction,  A  girl  thus  taught  might  have  less  coquetry, 
less  of  the  art  of  simpering  delicacy,  less  of  the  falla- 
cious faculty  of  casual  fascination.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  she  would  be  able  to  order  her  child's  nourish- 
ment to  the  end  of  conserving  all  the  actual  and 
potential  energy  of  which  he  is  capable,  she  would  be 
able  to  provide  an  intelligent  method  of  restoring 
wasted  tissue,  she  would  know  how  to  supply  the  easi- 
est means  of  adding  new  materials  from  which  new 
elements  may  grow.  Under  such  a  regime  there  would 
be  fewer  complaints  of  reflex  nervous  disorders  depend- 
ing upon  an  irritated  gastro-intestinal  system  and  mal- 
assimilation  of  food.  And  with  these  reflex  conditions 
removed,  a  fertile  cause  of  serious  mental  and  nervous 
irregularities  would  simultaneously  vanish. 

Besides  this,  the  whole  growth  of  the  body  and  the 
interdependence  of  its  various  parts  would  be  more 
even,  more  nicely  balanced.  It  is  true  that  the  mental 
maturity  might  not  come  so  rapidly,  but  this,  instead 
of  being  a  disadvantage,  would  act  as  an  advantage  ; 
for  one  should  remember  that  a  too  rapid  maturity  is 
apt  to  be  pathological  or,  at  least,  productive  of  one- 
sidedness.  Parents  rarely  realize  how  much  the  ques- 
tion of  diet  has  to  do  with  the  normal,  healthy  tone  of 
their  children's  minds,  how  closely  it  concerns  their 
peacefulness,  their  cheerfulness,  their  temperateness, 
their  susceptibility  to  legitimate  influence.  Many  a 
time  a  close  observer  will  notice  an  intimate  connec- 


284       THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

tion  between  vicious  traits  and  a  vicious  diet.  And 
a  woman  who  clearly  understands  the  methods  and 
rationale  of  preparing  and  combining  foods  is  apt  to 
do  more  real  good  than  any  physician  by  reconstruc- 
tive measures  can  hope  to  accomplish.  If  to  such  an 
understanding  she  adds  an  equal  acquaintance  with 
the  common  and  known  truths  of  hygiene,  her  worth 
to  herself,  her  family  and  the  community  will  be  tre- 
mendously increased.  By  such  information  she  would 
protect  the  family  health,  she  would  make  the  general 
environment  more  conducive  to  a  clear  functional 
activity.  In  some  schools  at  the  present  time  a  sub- 
ject called  "hygiene"  is  taught;  but  its  treatment  is 
so  slight  and  unpractical  that  its  value  is  almost 
naught.  Under  a  better  system  the  student  would 
really  be  benefited.  She  would  be  able  intelligently 
to  discriminate  between  proper  and  improper  methods 
of  clothing,  between  proper  and  improper  systems 
of  ventilation,  between  healthful  and  harmful  physical 
surroundings.  Such  a  woman  could  never  be  guilty 
of  so  elementary  a  matter  as  allowing  a  child  to  run 
about  in  cold  weather  wearing  short  socks,  leaving  a 
portion  of  the  leg  exposed  to  the  risk  of  congestive 
influences ;  she  would  know  what  were  the  demands 
of  sufflcient  drainage  and  plumbing ;  she  would  have 
some  idea  of  the  value  of  a  scientific  cleanliness.  By 
her  knowledge  of  such  matters  as  the  conduction  of 
heat,  of  the  requirements  of  a  healthful  and  sufficient 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  285 

water  supply,  she  would  promote  the  comfort  and  well- 
being  of  those  who  were  dependent  upon  her  guarding 
care. 

Such  studies  might  advantageously  form  part  of  a 
training  which  would  infinitely  promote  the  health, 
prosperity  and  right  development  of  the  community. 
They  would  convert  a  great  body  of  more  or  less  use- 
less women  into  most  valuable  workers.  That  some 
change  in  occupation  and  training  is  necessary  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  And  the  well-known  restlessness, 
dissatisfaction  and  discontent  of  modern  women  is  one 
proof  of  it.  An  increasing  number  of  them  complain 
continually  of  seeing  no  object  in  life,  of  having  noth- 
ing to  work  for,  of  having  no  goal  by  which  to  guide 
their  ways.  Unquestionably  a  reason  for  this  is  the 
fact  that  the  old  ideas  are  passing  away.  There  is  a 
common  consciousness  that  old-time  methods  may  be 
made  better,  that  women  are  as  susceptible  of  im- 
provement in  their  ways  as  men  are.  They  have  felt 
and  are  feeling  more  acutely  than  ever  the  controlling 
spirit  of  the  time  which  is  revolutionary,  iconoclastic, 
sceptical  of  rule-of-thumb  methods  by  which  our  ances- 
tors were  guided.  One  can  easily  imagine  why  it  is 
that  the  large  body  of  women  are  striving  for  normal 
activity,  are  trying  to  secure  by  any  manner  of  means 
a  release  from  an  environment  which  makes  them  in- 
feriors of  their  fathers,  husbands  and  brothers.  The 
reason  is  in  large  part  based  on  the  feeling  that  their 


286  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

sphere  of  work  is  somewhat  trivial,  that  their  range 
of  influence  is  not  important  enough  for  their  dignity. 
Under  a  better  custom  things  would  change.  Rather 
would  they  then  look  upon  themselves  as  different, 
not  inferior.  They  would  recognize  that  the  differ- 
ence between  men  and  women  is  a  matter  of  mental 
and  physical  constitution.  And  a  difference  in  con- 
stitution means  a  difference  in  function.  When  this 
becomes  clearly  known,  when  women  feel  within  them- 
selves the  responsibilities  of  definite  and  useful  ac- 
tivity and  with  this  recognize  the  normal  and  right 
field  for  their  abilities,  there  will  be  less  of  an  outcry 
against  the  "unnatural  competition"  between  brother 
and  sister,  husband  and  wife.  The  more  clearly  each 
one  recognizes  his  limitations  and  proper  field  of  en- 
deavor, the  sooner  will  a  more  tolerable  condition  of 
affairs  come  about.  And  as  soon  as  their  recognition 
is  definite  and  clear  cut,  there  will  grow  up  in  women 
as  in  men,  a  triumphant  demand  for  the  best  prepara- 
tion that  will  fit  them  for  their  proper  activity. 

The  world  has  always  recognized  that  a  woman's 
natural  and  highest  sphere  is  that  of  mother,  and  the 
woman  who  best  embodied  the  mother-ideal  has  always 
been  the  subject  of  the  sincerest  worship.  In  the 
changes  incident  to  modern  life  the  fact  that  the 
means  for  attaining  this  ideal  may  be  altered  has 
been  lost  sight  of.  As  a  result  of  historical  experi- 
ence, women  have  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  287 

maternity  too  much  in  the  light  of  an  incident,  as  an 
accident  of  life  which  may  come  as  sickness  or  revo- 
lution in  affairs  may  come,  and  for  which  no  adequate 
preparation  (outside  of  a  financial  preparation)  can  or 
need  be  made.  But  nowadays  we  know  better  than 
that ;  we  know  that  when  a  woman  has  the  opportu- 
nity of  putting  herself  in  an  environment  which  has 
always  and  must  always  represent  the  highest  point 
in  her  ambitions,  when  as  a  result  of  this  she  assumes 
responsibilities  which  transcend  in  importance  those 
of  almost  any  profession  or  calling,  when  we  know 
that  these  responsibilities  may  be  wisely  or  unwisely 
administered,  and  that  there  is  a  large  range  of  sub- 
jects which  can  rightly  form  the  basis  of  preparation 
for  administering  them,  then  one  may  say  that  in  such 
work  lies  the  finest  vocation  that  a  mounting  ambition 
could  desire.  One  must  say  that  in  the  profession  of 
maternity  lies  the  hope  of  the  time,  the  cure  for  the 
restlessness,  the  discontent  and  the  chagrin  that  tor- 
ment the  feminine  world.  One  may  rightly  call  it  a 
cure,  because  it  not  only  provides  a  method  of  absorp- 
tion of  restless  energy,  giving  an  outlet  for  the  exer- 
cise of  every  faculty  of  which  a  woman  is  capable, 
but  also  because  it  has  for  its  object  the  highest  aim 
toward  which  men  have  ever  cast  their  eyes :  the 
betterment  of  the  individual  and  the  race. 

However,  the   absorption    of  restlessness  is  really  a 
secondary  matter.     The  main  consideration  is,  that  any 


288      THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

woman  has  a  right  to  look  forward  to  making  a  career 
in  the  world  for  herself,  and  that  this  right  is  founded 
upon  much  the  same  grounds  which  support  the  antici- 
pations for  a  life  work  of  her  brother.  So  long  as  one 
recognizes  this,  one  must  likewise  recognize  the  neces- 
sity of  ascertaining  in  what  directions  the  girl's  possi- 
bilities tend,  what  her  sphere  of  greatest  usefulness 
really  is,  and  what  the  best  means  of  culture  therein 
are.  So  long  as  she  is  considered  capable  of  filling  the 
noble  position  of  a  mother,  so  long  as  there  is  a  hope 
of  her  assuming  its  duties  and  obligations,  the  question 
about  the  choice  of  a  vocation  for  her  has  simultane- 
ously been  answered.  Lamentations  concerning  the 
"unsexing  of  women  by  stress  of  industrial  life,"  con- 
cerning the  ruinous  competition  between  men  and 
women,  would  have  no  reason  for  existence.  It  must 
be  evident  that  the  ideal  industrial  condition  is  ob- 
tained, not  so  much  by  putting  each  person  in  a  cutting 
competition  with  his  neighbor,  but  by  so  regulating 
opportunities  that  every  one  has  the  work  for  which  he 
is  best  designed.  So  far  as  women  are  concerned, 
there  is  little  or  no  attempt  at  the  present  to  do  this. 
Whatever  training  they  obtain  is  usually  of  the  most 
general  kind.  This  in  itself  is  sad  enough  ;  but  what 
is  still  worse  is  that  no  idea  of  the  seriousness  of  the 
deficiency  is  generally  appreciated.  If  a  similar  con- 
ception in  regard  to  any  one  of  the  recognized  trades  or 
professions  were  held,  one  would  be  justified  in  belie v- 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY  289 

ing  that  the  occupation  could  not  possibly  be  of  much 
importance.  Therefore,  it  is  quite  remarkable  that,  in 
the  matter  of  the  most  vital  trust  which  can  be  reposed 
upon  a  human  being,  thoughtful  and  conscientious 
persons  should  not  long  ago  have  recognized  the  neces- 
sities of  the  case,  and  after  recognizing  them  insisted 
upon  a  proper  provision  for  answering  them.  The  facts 
that  women  are  from  the  beginning  designed  especially 
for  the  profession  of  maternity,  that  by  following  it 
they  best  fulfil  all  their  physical  and  mental  functions, 
and  that  the  paramount  value  of  this  work  is  plain  and 
clear,  make  the  claims  of  this  vocation  upon  our 
respectful  consideration  exceedingly  strong.  So  long 
as  this  is  true,  the  conclusion  must  follow  that  the  main 
part  of  the  preparatory  training  of  girls,  even  though 
the  present  customs  and  ideals  be  thereby  wholly 
altered,  should  be  formed  upon  what  the  requirements 
of  the  main  work  in  her  life  dictate.  When  the  premi- 
ses are  once  admitted,  it  is  nothing  less  than  wanton 
neglect  and  stultification  to  deny  in  any  part  the  inevi- 
table conclusion. 

The  change  in  the  educational  life  of  woman  here 
indicated  is  so  radical  from  what  is  now  in  vogue,  that 
one  may  be  apt  to  think  it  chimerical,  that  women  will 
always  insist  on  having  a  large  decorative  element  in 
their  training.  To  set  the  doubt  at  rest  one  need 
merely  call  to  mind  the  changed  standards  of  customs 
and  living  which  have  occurred  in  the  last  few  years. 

V 


290  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE   CHILD 

The  very  life  of  women  in  numberless  details  has 
changed  so  much  that  our  grandmothers  would  never 
have  been  able  to  imagine  the  conditions  of  their  de- 
scendants. Even  in  far  other  matters,  even  where  the 
controlling  force  is  as  rigorous  and  inevitable  as  com- 
mercial demands,  the  spirit  of  the  time  insists  so  strik- 
ingly on  progress  and  so  sharply  stimulates  endeavor, 
that  what  was  impossible  yesterday  becomes  to-day  not 
only  possible,  but  commonplace.  Not  so  many  years 
ago  Herbert  Spencer,  in  writing  about  the  limitations 
of  human  work  and  knowledge,  said :  "  Numerous  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  construct  electro-magnetic 
engines,  in  the  hope  of  superseding  steam ;  but  had 
those  who  supplied  the  money  understood  the  general 
law  of  the  correlation  and  equivalence  of  forces,  they 
might  have  had  better  balances  at  their  bankers." 
When  this  sentence  was  written  the  futility  of  the 
scheme  in  question  seemed  so  apparent  that  even  a 
man  like  Spencer,  a  man  of  great  knowledge,  wisdom 
and  scientific  imagination,  could  see  nothing  more  in 
the  idea  of  superseding  steam  by  electricity  than  a 
wild  project  that  sober  minds  could  never  entertain. 
Nevertheless,  such  motors  are  in  use  to-day,  are  suc- 
cessfully run,  and  bid  fair  in  time  to  abolish  the  use 
of  steam. 

Ever  so  nn^uch  more  easily  could  the  view-points  in 
the  education  of  women  be  altered.  Not  only  are 
women  amenable  to  the  change,  but  also  they  would 


THE  PROFESSION  OF  MATERNITY 


291 


welcome  it  as  deliverance  from  the  reputed  intellect- 
ual bondage  in  which  so  many  of  them  believe  that 
they  are  held.  In  addition,  the  quality  of  the  time 
demands  the  change.  What  women  are  asking  for  is 
not  so  much  an  increase  in  ease  and  luxury,  an  increase 
in  the  decorative  and  fantastic  elements  in  life  ;  on  the 
contrary,  more  than  ever  before,  I  believe,  do  they  long 
for  a  high  grade  of  usefulness,  for  the  possibility  of 
making  a  career  for  themselves.  Such  an  ambition, 
capable  of  all  nobility,  striving  and  self-sacrifice,  can 
never  be  gratified  under  the  conditions  of  our  present 
education.  The  elements  of  satisfying  such  emotions 
do  not  in  large  enough  degree  exist.  But  under  con- 
ditions which  would  bring  about  an  immeasurable 
uplifting  in  the  standards  of  physical,  mental  and  spir- 
itual existence,  there  could  be  no  limit  to  the  useful 
work  which  would  lie  at  their  hands.  Under  such 
auspices,  marriage  would  become  easier,  its  disabilities 
lighter,  its  reasons  stronger  than  ever.  Much  of  the 
present  "  unnatural  competition  "  would  have  no  reason 
for  existence  and  so  would  cease  to  exist.  The  com- 
munity would  have  more  time  in  which  to  live,  for  the 
time,  effort  and  value  that  are  consumed  by  faulty 
methods  of  management  would  act  as  clear  gain.  Not 
the  least  among  the  advancing  steps  of  the  age  will 
be  the  recognition  of  the  duties,  the  emoluments  and 
the  comparative  value  of  maternity,  and  when  the 
preparation  for  it  assumes  the  dignity  of  a  professional 


292  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CHILD 

training  and  the  fulfilment  of  its  obligations  and  pos- 
sibilities, the  best  ideal  of  a  fine  career,  the  world  must 
see  that  it  has  taken  a  great  stride  along  the  path  of 
its  natural  evolution. 


INDEX 


Abdominal  aorta,  relation  in  size  to 
common  iliac  arteries,  42. 

Alberson,  149. 

Alveoli  of  lungs,  42,  43. 

Amoeba,  207. 

Amylopsin,  47. 

Annulns  tympanicus,  26. 

Aorta,  relation  in  size  to  pulmonary 
artery,  41. 

Apes,  platyrhine,  30. 

Aristotle,  93. 

Aryans,  124. 

Atlas,  32. 

Bacchic  orgies,  139. 

Bacon,  93. 

Baer,  177. 

Basi-occipital  bone,  22. 

Basi-sphenoidal  bone,  22. 

Beranger,  177. 

Best  on  Evidence,  149. 

Bile,  39. 

Binswanger,  54. 

Bishop,  W.,  23a 

Bladder,  49. 

Blind  Tom,  217,  230. 

Blood,  in  infants.  17,  18. 

specific  gravity  of,  17. 
Body-plasm,  80. 
Bone  elements,  comparative  table  of, 

16. 
Bones,  16. 

development  of  long,  19. 

Wormian,  177. 
Brain,  52,  53. 

cells  of,  55. 

convolutions  of,  53. 


Bramans,  origin  of,  124. 
Bronchi,  42,  43. 
Bushmen,  African,  217. 
Australian,  132. 

Caecum,  47,  48. 

Caesar,  232. 

Cajal,  59. 

California  system  of  child-caring,  259. 

Camp-meetings,  excitement  of,  129. 

Cartilage,  17. 

Cartilages,  costal,  33, 

Caterpillar,  11,  12. 

Celts,  origin  of,  124. 

Cerebellum,  53,  61. 

vermis  of,  61. 
Chest,  proportions  of,  34. 
Chromatin,  59. 
Chronic  constipation,  49. 
Clavicle,  right,  35. 
Clavicles,  33. 
Clouston,  207. 
Coccyx,  51. 
Code    of   criminal    procedure.   New 

York  state,  150. 
Colon,  ascending,  47. 

ascending,  mesentery  of,  48. 

ascending,  peritonaeum  of,  48. 

transverse,  47, 
Comenius,  93. 
Conus  arteriosus,  35. 
Corpora  quadrigemina,  56. 
Corre,  177. 
Cranium,  comparative  dimensions  of, 

23- 

Credulity,  natural,  127. 
Crime,  climate  as  cause  of,  191. 


293 


294 


INDEX 


Crime,  destitution  as  cause  of,  i8o. 

diet  as  cause  of,  192. 

drunkenness  as  cause  of,  181. 

environment  as  cause  of,  193. 

heredity  as  cause  of,  183. 

ignorance  as  cause  of,  178. 

weather  as  cause  of,  192. 
Crishna,  125. 
Cro-Magnon  race,  71. 
Cyril,  127, 

Darwin,  73. 
Dase,  218. 
Degeneracy,  238. 
Dendron,  58. 
Despine,  Prosper,  177. 
Devaki,  126. 
Diana,  127. 
Diaphragm,  42. 
Diehl,  Conrad,  116,  117. 
Dionysius,  125. 
Dordogne,  71. 
Dugdale,  188,  189,  201. 
Duodenum,  48. 
Dura  Mater,  21. 

Ear,  25. 
Ear  drum,  26. 
Epiglottis,  32. 
Epilepsy,  tj. 
Erasmus,  93. 
Eustachian  tube,  26,  27. 

relation  to  hard  palate,  26. 

Face,  comparative  dimensions  of,  21, 
22. 
growth  of,  23. 
Fatigue,  effects  of,  in  the  young,  89. 
Fehling,  13. 
Femoral  artery,  45. 
Fermentation,  intestinal,  168, 
Fetteroff,  264. 
Fibrinogen,  18. 
Fimald,  221. 
Fissure  of  Rolando,  54. 


Fissure  of  Sylvius,  54. 
Flechsig,  56. 
Fontanelles,  20. 
Foramen  caecum,  21. 
Foramen  magnum,  23. 
Foramen  ovale,  36. 
Frederick  William  I.,  93. 
Frigga,  26. 

Froebel,  93,  96,  97,  98, 115,  256. 
Frontal  bone,  orbital  plate  of,  21. 
Frontal  sinus,  21. 

Gall  bladder,  38. 
Gallon,  67,  146. 
Gambara,  177. 
Garofalo,  176.        ' 
Geggenbiihl,  218. 
Genius,  the,  230,  231. 
Germ-plasm,  79. 
Girard  College,  263. 
Glands,  Brunner's,  48. 

lachrymal,  25. 

Lieberkiihn's,  48. 

prostate,  49. 

ptyalin-forming,  31. 

solitary  and  agminated,  48. 
God,  child's  conception  of,  133,  165. 
Goethe,  235. 

Goltz,  experiments  of,  52. 
Greeks,  origin  of,  124. 
Greenleaf,  on  Evidence,  150. 
Gundobin,  18. 

Hailman,  W.  N.,  99. 

Hare-lip,  28. 

Heart,  "milk  spot"  of,  36. 

proportions  of,  35. 

relation  in  size  to  arterial  system,  41. 

relation  in  size  to  liver,  40. 
Hercules,  IS5. 
Herodotus,  126. 
Hodge,  53. 
Holder,  von,  176. 
Horus,  127. 
Howard,  220. 


INDEX 


295 


Infarctions,  uric  acid,  44. 

Inferior  turbinated  bone,  27. 

Ireland,  Dr.,  214. 

Isis,  126. 

Italians,  origin  of,  124. 

Jaw,  upper,  22. 

upper,  ramus  of,  24. 
Jews,  ancient,  123. 

descent  of,  71, 7a. 
Joyce,  Dr.,  108. 
Jukes,  188. 

Keilhau,  97. 

Kidneys,  development  of,  44. 

JCnee  joint,  development  of,  19. 

Larynx,  32. 

Laurent,  152,  177. 

Lavelaye,  de,  64. 

Liver,  development  of,  37. 

Lombroso,  61. 

Longet,  experiments  of,  52. 

Lourdes,  139. 

Lowell,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  252. 

Lymphatic  system,  48. 

Macula  lutea,  25. 

Malpighi,  pyramids  of,  44. 

Marimo,  177. 

Marrow,  17. 

Massachusetts  system  of  child-caring, 

258. 
Mastoid  bone,  19,  20. 
Mastoid  process,  20. 
Maudesley,  122. 
Maya-Maya,  126. 
Meatus  of  ear,  26. 
Medes  and  Persians,  origin  of,  124. 
Mediastinum,  32. 
Medulla  oblongata,  56. 
Membrana  tympani,  26. 
Metteay,  255. 

Michigan  system  of  child-caring,  259. 
Mithras,  125. 


Moral  Revival,  i. 
Morals,  training  in,  142. 
Morrison,  180,  181, 187. 
Mouth,  cavity  of,  24. 
Muscles,  17. 

Napoleon,  233. 
Nasal  cavity,  24. 
Naso-phar)mx,  24. 

Nerve  branches,  development  of,  57. 
Nerve  cells,  functions  of,  208,  210, 211. 
Neuron,  58. 

New    Hampshire   system    of   child- 
caring,  259. 
New  South  Wales,  257. 
New  York  system  of  child-caring,  258. 
Nose,  growth  of,  27,  28. 

Obersteiner,  77. 

Occipital  bone,  union  with  spheroid 

bone,  20. 
Ogle,  179. 
Orbit,  21. 

Orbit,  relation  to  nose,  34. 
Osiris,  125. 
Ossicles,  auditory,  25. 

Palate,  hard,  24. 
Palate,  soft,  30, 
Parker,  128. 
Patterson,  150. 
Payaguas,  132. 
Perinaeum,  50. 

fasciae  of,  50. 
Pestalozzi,  93,  96,  97,  256. 
Petro-squamous  suture,  20. 
Pons  varolii,  56. 
Predisposition,  75,  76. 
Prenated  diseases,  76. 
Prenatal  impressions,  78. 
Preyer,  61. 
Protozoa,  68. 
Psychical  trauma,  170. 
Ptyalin,  31. 
Purkinje,  cells  of,  53. 


296 


INDEX 


Ranke,  226. 
Recessus  opticus,  25. 
Rectum,  48,  49. 

peritonEeum,  49, 

prolapse  of,  49. 
Renin,  47. 
Ribs,  33,  34. 
Richardson,  Mrs.,  260. 
Richter,  177. 
Robinson,  L.,  60. 
Russell,  135,  156. 

Sachs,  209. 

Secr6tan,  M.  Charles,  2. 

Seguin,  213,  217,  219. 

Semele,  126, 

Semoff,  54. 

Serum,  specific  gravity  of,  17. 

Shamanism,  129. 

Shuttleworth,  213. 

Sigmoid  flexure,  47,  48, 

Siva  worship,  129. 

Skull,  comparative  dimensions  of,  23. 

Slavonic  nations,  origin  of,  124. 

Socrates,  93. 

Soubirous,  Bemadette,  139. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  100,  290. 

Sphenoidal  sinus,  21. 

Sphenoid  bone,  union  with  occipital 

bone,  20. 
Sphincter,  oesophageal,  46. 
Spine,  50,  51. 
Spleen,  39. 
Steapsin,  47. 
Sternum,  32,  33. 
Stomach,  development  of,  46. 

Taylor,  on  Evidence,  151. 
Teeth  — 

bicuspids,  29. 

canines,  29. 

incisors,  29. 

molars,  29. 

molar,  fourth,  30. 


Teeth  — 

alveolar  processes  of,  28. 

coronoid  processes  of,  29. 

development  of,  28,  29. 

milk,  29. 
Temporal  bone,  parietal  portion  of, 

24 ;  squamous  portion  of,  23. 
Terra  del  Fuegians,  132. 
Tertullian,  126. 
Teutons,  70. 
Thymus  gland,  31. 
Thyroid  gland,  32, 
Tongue,  development  of,  30 ;  follicles 

of,  31. 
Tonsil,  pharyngeal,  31. 
Trachea,  33. 
Tragus  of  ear,  26. 
Trypsin,  47. 
Tuberculosis,   debilitating  effects  of, 

213,  214 ;  transmission  of,  76. 
Tympanum  (middle  ear),  21. 

Urethra,  49. 
Uterus,  49. 
Uvula,  31. 

Victoria,  257. 

Vierordt's  table  of  comparative  per- 
centages, 15. 
Vision  in  new-bom  child,  25. 
Vomer,  23. 

Wagner,  234. 

Warner,  198. 

Washington,  233. 

Water,  proportion  of,  in  foetus,  13. 

Wharton,  151. 

Whitwell,  226. 

Whirling  dervishes,  129. 

Wichern,  255. 

Yverdun,  96,  97. 

Zygomata  (cheek  bones),  33. 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN  AND  THEIR 
SCHOOL  TRAINING. 


By  FRANCIS   WARNER,    M.D. 
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THE  CHILD  AND  THE  RACE. 


JAMES  MARK  BALDWIN,  M.A.,  Ph.D., 

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A   COURSE  OF  LECTURES 

ON  THE 

GROWTH  AND  MEANS  OF  TRAINING 

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MENTAL  FACULTY. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE. 


FRANCIS  WARNER,  M.D.  (Lond.), 
F.R.C.P.,  r.R.C.S.  (Eng.), 

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AN  OUTLINE  OF  PSYCHOLOGY. 


EDWARD  BRADFORD  TITCHENER,  A.M.,  Ph.D., 
Sage  Professor  of  Psychology  at  the  Cornell  University. 

Second  Edition  with  Corrections. 
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A  PRIMER  OF  PSYCHOLOGY. 


EDWARD  BRADFORD  TITCHENER, 
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THE  CHILD  AND  CHILDHOOD 

IN  FOLK-THOUGHT. 

(The  Child  in  Primitive  Culture.) 

Studies  of  the  Activities  and  Influences  of  the  Child  amoner 

Primitive  Peoples,  their  Analogues  and  Survivals 

in  the  Civilization  of  To-day. 


ALEXANDER  FRANCIS  CHAMBERLAIN,  M.A.,  Ph.D., 
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development."  —  Buffalo  Commercial. 

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in  child  study."  —  American  Journal  of  Psychology. 

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/  vv^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 
EDUCATION  AND  PSYCHOLOGY  LIBRARY 

This  books  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


JUL  18  1966 


JUL  19  1956 


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